W ith mesmeric, vibrant strokes of blue, orange, and purple, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s The Equus Constellation is a brilliant ode to her Indigenous American heritage and the importance of the horse in Native American ideology. Based on the constellation of the same name, which translates to “little horse” in Latin, the present work embodies some of Smith’s best and most distinct qualities: incorporating recognizable imagery from Native American life with familiar Pop Art and Neo-Expressionist references and techniques. Like many Indigenous artists, Smith flattens the spatial structure of her compositions, a strategy that denies the illusion of space and connects to generations of traditional mark making. Dancing across the composition, Smith’s recognizable horse motif juxtaposes the undulating and often jagged marks flowing throughout the canvas, presenting a captivating composition anchored by ebbs and flows. It is this unique visual language which characterizes the very essence of Smith’s oeuvre, addressing the myths of her ancestors as well as contemporary issues facing the Indigenous American communities today, often through abstract.mes ans.
“Smith renders animals, plants, architecture and topography in a set of idiosyncratic symbols that read as simultaneously personal and universal.”
A Native American of French-Cree, Shoshone, and Salish ancestry, Smith is part of a new generation of Native American artists working to redefine their culture’s relationship to contemporary American life and its problematic past. Rooted in storytelling, her practice incorporates elements of language and popular culture alongside the desert landscape, horses, petroglyphs, and maps. As a child growing up on the Flathead Reservation in Montana, Smith would carry around small drawings of animals that her father drew for her, later translating these personal images into those in the present work. While Smith’s gestures are inherently abstract, they nevertheless materialize into the familiar; here, jagged lines referencing mountain ranges and concentrated swirls mimicking the wind. With all of its allegorical associations and painterly bravura, The Equus Constellation demonstrates the most prized aspects of Smith's practice as a force to be reckoned with.
