Where did we leave it with Part Two of our London Gallery Weekend coverage? Something about moving quickly on to the almost always reliable Stephen Friedman Gallery and the freshly opened much anticipated Jaune Quick-To-See Smith exhibition Rooted in Memory at their very big (are we still calling it new?) space. Something about “actually, you know what, the Jaune Quick-To-See Smith exhibition deserves a page all to itself rather then it being crammed at the foot of this already busy page, London Gallery Weekend Part Three will be along in a moment…” And here we are again, in the playground of there… no, here we are again, Part Three of the London Gallery Weekend adventure and Jaune Quick-To-See Smith and the quietly walking in to the beautifully big gallery space on Cork Street.

This looked exciting through the Windows of the opening night, I resisted the temptation to go in and waited to have that first encounter without the crowds and the distractions of an opening night. I was looking forward to this one, to seeing a substantial slice of Jaune Quick-To-See Smith art in the flesh.  Jaune Quick-To-See Smith was  born in St. Ignatius, Flathead Reservation, Montana in 1940 and died in Corrales, New Mexico earlier this year, 2025, I must admit I missed the news of her passing until this week and this show. I had seen her work before, it always looked exciting to me, those layers and such (that might have been a subliminal influence), never been lucky enough to see her work in the flesh though, not until today 

“A Native American of French-Cree, Shoshone, and Salish blood, New Mexican artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith creates paintings and drawings that reflect her upbringing in a household where art and horses were equally important. In the initial stages of her career, Smith’s painted landscapes inevitably contained a “portrait” of her horse Cheyenne shown with tepees, tools, pottery, and other Indian artifacts. Eventually Smith began to incorporate collage elements into her paintings, adding bits of calico and muslin fabric and wire mesh over which she lavished paint. The result was surfaces that acquired a texture and topography reminiscent of the landscapes she was depicting. Smith is part of the new generation of Native American artists who are helping to redefine their culture’s relationship to contemporary American life and its problematic past. In recent years she lived and worked in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in close proximity to the land that inspired much of her art…”

All three big rooms of Stephen Friedman Gallery’s big airy Cork Street space are, well not packed, conservatively hung with Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, a hang that allows everything time and space to breathe and each piece to communicate on their own terms.  This is a beautifully hung show, the big back room of the space is devoted to her wonderful Tierra Madre paintings, the last body of work which Smith completed in the months before her death in early 2025. “These works represent the culmination of her interest in Indigenous empowerment, land rights and environmental justice. Each canvas focuses on a central figure, calling to mind Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, but replacing the idealised Renaissance male with a female. The paintings pay homage to female icons known for their political activism: Tierra Madre: Wilma Mankiller (2024-25) celebrates the first woman elected to serve as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, while Tierra Madre: Annie Lennox (2024-25) honours the Scottish singer and human rights campaigner. The paintings are charged with symbolic power and demonstrate how tirelessly Smith used her practice as a form of advocacy, right through to this final body of work” 

– I do like that Annie Lennox  features here, not because I’m a fan, I’m not really, but more because it kind of illustrates perfectly the fact that we really shouldn’t just view Jaune Quick-to-See Smith as a Native American Painter, we should really be viewing her as nothing more than a great painter. At times almost a pop artist, certainly a great American Painter, let’s not just package her up and park over there, of course she was a proudly Native American Painter, but she surely as far more than just that?  I love these Tierra Madre pieces, they’re just so so good to look at, to stand before, to peel back and read into, the mark-making is a delight as are the lines, it is simply a massive honour to get to stand in this room with these pieces.  They have me in delight, they have me wanting to ask so many questions about how they were made, did she know she was dying (of cancer) while she was working on them? Were they a deliberate parting statement left? They certainly talk for her, the conversations in here are strong, to stand in the middle of the room surrounded with these final paintings all together  is simply wonderful      

Of course we should see Jaune Quick-to-See Smith as a Native American Painter and this exhibition also offers a broad survey of large-scale works, historical paintings if you will. “In 1992, Smith began the I See Red series as a critical response to the quincentennial celebrations of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the US, “to remind viewers that Native Americans are still alive”. Speaking of the Trade Canoe series, Whitney Museum curator Laura Phipps remarks, “Smith’s painted canoe becomes a stage on which the violent and exploitative history of this country is performed, as she masterfully collages historic photographs, zoological illustrations, and clippings from newspapers and magazines”. The appropriated imagery and layers of collage are reminiscent of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, demonstrating the artist’s ability to combine Indigenous iconography with modernist influences. Smith explains that she employs techniques such as Pop Art because it serves as “a common language” to communicate with a wider audience through familiar imagery “symbolic of American mainstream culture”. 

Oh, I adore this show, I love every piece in it, each painting, they all says so much, every mark, every layer, each bit of embedded collage, so many things in each pieces. So many emotions, very serious pieces, serious issues, but fun as well, the joy of painting, of pop art, of life (and yes, the joy of her horses). Oh look, this is a wonderful show, an important show, a celebration of a show, if you get a chance just please go and see it, it is all just there waiting, it is all free, we must thank the gallery for this. Just go and see it, this is why I love exploring art galleries so much…

And on went the explore of London Gallery Weekend, Part Four, five and probably Part Six will be along in a moment, the whole weekend is ahead us, this is still Friday afternoon and by the time the weekend is all over we will have been to something like fifty galleries, but hey, it is all London Gallery Weekend hype this weekend, you could explore all these spaces on any given weekend of the year… More in a moment, here’s another #43SecondFilm…

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Rooted in Memory is on at Stephen Friedman Gallery‘s London space until 26th July 2025 (actually the opening as on the Friday evening, whatever the case I wanted the quiet of the afternoon)

Stephen Friedman Gallery is at 5–6 Cork Street, London, W1S 3LQ. The gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am until 6pm (11am to 5pm on Saturdays). Previous Stephen Friedman Gallery coverage on these pages

Previously

ORGAN: London Gallery Weekend Pt.2 – A quick bit of Emily Kam Kngwarray at Pace, a touch of Rachel Whiteread in the middle of the floor at Ordovas, the positive uplifting beauty of Michaela Yearwood-Dan exhibition at Hauser & Wirth and…

ORGAN: London Gallery Weekend pt.1 – A rather busy opening of a strong Anderson Borba show at The Approach, off to Kearsey and Gold for the opening of Filippo Antonello’s exhibition Aufheben, that and more at Canalboat Contemporary…

ORGAN PREVIEW: London Gallery Weekend is upon us again, it all kicks off tomorrow, Friday 6th June, all about the art and the exploring, don’t worry about your shoes…

As always. do click on an image to see the whole thing or to run the slide show