Join us at @efluxscreeningroom on Saturday, May 9, at 3pm for a screening and discussion with Sky Hopinka @skyhopinka . Alongside a selection of his films, the afternoon brings together works by Fox Maxy, Tyson Houseman, darylina powderface, and Svetlana Romanova, selected by Hopinka as points of affinity and dialogue.
Hopinka’s work has been shaped by the artist’s relation to Indigenous landscape and language. Having studied and taught Chinuk Wawa, a language Indigenous to the Lower Columbia River Basin, Hopinka has described language as foundational to how he approaches video and storytelling. His films are often characterized as poetic non-fiction, resisting the expectation that Indigenous stories must be made fully legible to an outside viewer. This program extends the artist’s concerns through a group of works focusing on ancestral land, kinship, ecological attention, and forms of remembrance that exceed linear time.
Program
Sky Hopinka, He Who Wears Faces on His Ears (2025, 9 minutes)
Fox Maxy @foxm4xy , Gathering Dust (2023, 5 minutes)
darylina powderface, how it used to be (2025)
Tyson Houseman @tysonhouseman , opwêyakatâmêw (2024, 10 minutes)
Sky Hopinka, Here you are before the trees (2020, 13 minutes)
Tyson Houseman, Collapsing Wave Function (2025, 6 minutes)
Svetlana Romanova, Hinkelten (2023, 15 minutes)
Get tickets at the link in bio.
Image: Sky Hopinka, He Who Wears Faces on His Ears (still), 2025.
ANNOUNCING 🚨
The 2026 Powwow People Community Tour 🪶
This summer, the Powwow People impact team will travel to 7 communities across the United States and Canada to create spaces for culture, connection, and storytelling through film.
All screenings are first come, first served and will include a Q&A with director @skyhopinka and members of the film team.
TOUR DATES:
5/19 Portland, OR | 6:00pm PSU Native American Student & Community Center
5/20 Milwaukie, OR | 5:30pm Reception, 6:30pm Screening Milwaukie High School
5/21 Portland, OR | 2:00pm Barbie’s Village
6/12 Lawrence, KS | 6:30pm Haskell Indian Nations University Library
6/14 Durant, OK | 2:00pm The District at Choctaw Nation Casino & Resort
6/17 Kamloops, BC, CA | 7:30pm The Paramount Theatre
6/19 Saskatoon, SK, CA | 7:00pm SaskTel Theatre at Remai Modern
For more information or to organize a screening in your community, please reach out to [email protected]
TOMORROW NIGHT!
POWWOW PEOPLE
THURSDAY, April 9th @ 7pm — at @amherstcinema !
Filmmaker SKY HOPINKA (@skyhopinka ) joins us for a post-film discussion
Tickets & Info: /films-and-events/powwow-people
About the film:
POWWOW PEOPLE is a vérité-style documentary grounded in the rhythms, relationships, and lived experience of a contemporary Native gathering. Rather than entering as outside observers, the filmmakers organized the powwow itself, inviting dancers, singers, vendors, and community members to participate in the making of this film.
Structured around the arc of a single day, the film follows four central figures: Gina Bluebird, who frames the powwow’s shape and guides its setup; Ruben Littlehead, the MC whose presence anchors the present moment; Jamie John, a non-binary dancer imagining the future of these traditions; and Freddie Cozad, a singer and drummer who considers the past.
The film culminates in a 30-minute unbroken shot of a Northern Traditional dance special, drawing the viewer into the textures, movement, and collective presence of the powwow. It is both a reflection of a beloved and complicated community and a gesture toward the continuities of Native life.
Don’t miss the chance to be in the room with the incredible @skyhopinka ❗️Join us April 23, from 6-8 PM for an unforgettable artist talk with @skyhopinka . His works explores language, Indigenous sovereignty, landscape, and memory through film, photography, and text. Presented in partnership with Cleveland Humanities Festival and Baker-Nord Humanities Center.
His current exhibition, The Myth is Now, is at moCa through August 2, 2026.
🎟️Tickets are limited, to secure yours now click the link in our bio, or visit mocacleveland.org/events for more information. Free for moCa members.
“Sky Hopinka: Red Metal Dust” is now on view at the Barnes. Through photography, video, and text, Hopinka reflects on Indigenous homelands and the layered histories of the American experience.
This installation is free and open to the public. No ticket needed. Just let our front desk staff know you’re here to see “Red Metal Dust.”
“Sky Hopinka: Red Metal Dust”
📅 March 21, 2026 – January 18, 2027
🔗 Learn more ➡ link in bio
"Sky Hopinka: Red Metal Dust" was initiated for the Barnes by Nancy Ireson.
#barnesfoundation #seeartdifferently #skyhopinka #redmetaldust #philly
POWWOW PEOPLE
THURSDAY, April 9th @ 7pm — at @amherstcinema !
Filmmaker SKY HOPINKA ( @skyhopinka ) joins us for a post-film discussion
Tickets & Info: /films-and-events/powwow-people
About the film:
POWWOW PEOPLE is a vérité-style documentary grounded in the rhythms, relationships, and lived experience of a contemporary Native gathering. Rather than entering as outside observers, the filmmakers organized the powwow itself, inviting dancers, singers, vendors, and community members to participate in the making of this film.
Structured around the arc of a single day, the film follows four central figures: Gina Bluebird, who frames the powwow’s shape and guides its setup; Ruben Littlehead, the MC whose presence anchors the present moment; Jamie John, a non-binary dancer imagining the future of these traditions; and Freddie Cozad, a singer and drummer who considers the past.
The film culminates in a 30-minute unbroken shot of a Northern Traditional dance special, drawing the viewer into the textures, movement, and collective presence of the powwow. It is both a reflection of a beloved and complicated community and a gesture toward the continuities of Native life.
Powwow People, coming to a community near you! We’re honored to support this film’s vision and help bring it into meaningful conversation with audiences and communities this summer. Stay on the lookout for our upcoming tour dates.
Powwow People, by director @skyhopinka is a vérité-style documentary grounded in the rhythms, relationships, and lived experience of a contemporary Native gathering. Rather than entering as outside observers, the filmmakers organized the powwow itself, inviting dancers, singers, vendors, and community members to participate in the making of this film. Structured around the arc of a single day, the film follows four central figures: Gina Bluebird, who frames the powwow’s shape and guides its setup; Ruben Littlehead, the MC whose presence anchors the present moment; Jamie John, a non-binary dancer imagining the future of these traditions; and Freddie Cozad, a singer and drummer who considers the past. The film culminates in a 30-minute unbroken shot of a Northern Traditional dance special, drawing the viewer into the textures, movement, and collective presence of the powwow. It is both a reflection of a beloved and complicated community and a gesture toward the continuities of Native life.
Featuring: Gina Bluebird-Stacona, Freddie Cozad, @jamie_john.jpg , @midwestndnshootout �Drum Groups: @blacklodgesingers , Cozad Singers��Director, Camera, Editor: Sky Hopinka�Director of Photography: @shaandiin �Sound Recordist: Jacque Clark�Produced by @johncardellino , @adampiron �Executive Producers: @sterlinharjo , Rachel Chanoff, @nbashev �Associate Producers: Emir West, Barbara Ettinger
IN TWO WEEKS! On Thursday April 9th, we’re screening Sky Hopinka’s short experimental film FAINTING SPELLS alongside Colombian feature film EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT at @braindeadstudiosfairfax
In his abstract short film FAINTING SPELLS, Hopinka imagines a myth for the medicinal plant Xąwįska, traditionally used by the Ho-Chunk to revive those who have fainted. In his extensive research for the film, Hopinka was not able to find an origin story for the plant, so he instead created one as a way to connect to mythmakers and mythkeepers in his own Indigenous culture. Through a collage of landscapes, handwritten text, and luscious, colorful textures, the film takes the viewer on a poetic journey through personal recollection, dreams, lore, and expanded states of consciousness.
Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians) was born and raised in Ferndale, Washington and Palm Springs, California. In Portland, Oregon he studied and taught chinuk wawa, a language indigenous to the Lower Columbia River Basin. His video, photo, and text work centers around personal positions of Indigenous homeland and landscape, designs of language as containers of culture expressed through personal, documentary, and non fiction forms of media.
His work has played at various festivals including Sundance, Toronto International Film Festival, and the New York Film Festival, and has been included in many art exhibitions, including the upcoming @hammer_museum exhibition curated by Pablo José Ramírez @pablojoseramirez , “Several Eternities in a Day: Form in the Age of Living Materials.”
🎟️ Tickets to the screening are available now in @phantasmagoriacinema ’s bio and on Brain Dead Studios’ website!
Film stills courtesy of @skyhopinka
Please join us this Friday, March 27th at 7PM, for an artist talk and lecture with Sky Hopinka!
The lecture will take place in the Lainer Gallery at Margo Leavin Graduate Studios and is free and open to the public ⭐️
Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians) was born and raised in Ferndale, Washington and Palm Springs, California. In Portland, Oregon he studied and taught chinuk wawa, a language indigenous to the Lower Columbia River Basin. His video, photo, and text work centers around personal positions of Indigenous homeland and landscape, designs of language as containers of culture expressed through personal, documentary, and non fiction forms of media.
His films, videos, and photographs are in collections at the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany, The Whitney Museum, the Amon Carter Museum of Art, and the Walker Art Center amongst others. His work has played at various festivals including Sundance, Toronto International Film Festival, and the New York Film Festival. His work was a part of the 2017 Whitney Biennial, the 2018 FRONT Triennial, the 2021 edition of Prospect.5, and the 14th Gwangju Biennial in South Korea and the Göteborg International Biennial in Switzerland in 2023. He was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University in 2018- 2019, a Sundance Art of Nonfiction Fellow for 2019, an Art Matters Fellow in 2019, a recipient of a 2020 Herb Alpert Award for Film/Video, a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow, and was a 2021 Forge Project Fellow. He received the 2022 Infinity Award in Art from the International Center of Photography, is a 2022 MacArthur Fellow and was a winner of the 2023 Baloise Art Prize at Art Basel. He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is an assistant professor in the department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies at Harvard University.
Life on Land
January 30–March 14, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, January 30, 6-8pm
The Emily & Todd Voth Artspace is pleased to present Life on Land, the third exhibition in a trilogy that reconsiders landscape through artistic engagement, cultural memory, and lived experience.
Opening with a public reception and sound experience tonight, from 6–8 pm, Life on Land brings together works by Teresa Baker, Dawoud Bey, Yoan Capote, Sky Hopinka, Carlos Rolón, and Paul Rudy. Through photography, film, drawing, textiles, painting, text, and sound, the exhibition explores how landscape is shaped by memory, history, and cultural knowledge.
Taking inspiration from shifting art histories, the Artspace has organized a constellation of projects that reconsider landscape as both subject and method. Together, these explorations unfold new narratives and deepen our understanding of place and how meaning is shaped through depictions and evocations of the physical environment.
In 2023, Finding Ground offered a focused exploration of prairie ecologies, meditating on the past, present, and future of this distinctive ecosystem in a group exhibition that emphasized close observation and artistic practices rooted in working directly in and with the land.
In 2024, Material World foregrounded the interconnectedness of landscape and artistic practice through a dynamic group exhibition that presented a wide range of conceptual and material approaches that draw inspiration—and materials—directly from the natural world.
As the third exhibition in this trilogy, Life on Land turns toward cultural narratives, histories, and documents of lived experience that shape contemporary understandings of place and inform our expectations of landscape by introducing encounters with six artists who explore hidden or invisible truths, reimagine exile through abstraction, and evidence the archive of lived experience through innovative approaches to documentation.
Image: Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, born 1984), “Everything to be obliterated,” 2023, inkjet with hand-scratched text; courtesy of the artist and Broadway Gallery, New York
