M.F.A. Thesis Exhibition of Kalyn Fay Barnoski: 'in search of ourselves, we find each other'

Kalyn Barnoski

The School of Art in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is pleased to announce M.F.A. Thesis Exhibition featuring Kalyn Fay Barnoski: in search of ourselves, we find each other.

This multimedia exhibition is available online at insearchofourselves.com and includes a curated group exhibit titled, It Was Always Us! on view from April 2-16 at Perrodin Supply Co., located at 126 North Shiloh in Springdale, Arkansas. 

in search of ourselves, we find each other is a fully collaborative, multi-platform exhibit centered on the importance of developing and locating relationships to both self and community. Challenging societal individualism, the exhibit focuses on collective, relational creativity using Indigenous frameworks and methodologies for community, based on Barnoski's Tsa-la-gi (Cherokee) and Mvskoke (Muscogee) upbringing. 

"Kalyn's thesis work has created a critical site of Indigenous resurgence and resilience through radical collaboration and collective care," said Injeong Yoon-Ramirez, endowed professor of art education. "Her work proposes a radical vision for critical land-based aesthetic praxis, with and by Indigenous communities. Her vision is truly transformative and pivotal in our current time." 

Perception, self-location, community relations, honoring past and future and reciprocity are the five frameworks Barnoski implements in her work. They are woven into the fabric of this exhibition through a variety of media, methods and platforms. 

Barnoski uses audio, video, transcription and publication pieces in collaboration with people and spaces that she has developed relationships with over her lifetime in the online exhibition. She has dinner with friends, recites a poem while playing basketball at her old elementary school with her sister, performs music on her grandparent's land and talks with her dad on the road to the creek. 

A visual poem, of sorts, in search of ourselves, we find each other explores what it means to create an archive of shared experiences with others and creates new locations for people to understand themselves in relation to through those experiences. 

Her online and in-person exhibition incorporates a curated, group exhibit titled It Was Always Us! with over 20 participating artists spanning between Oklahoma and Arkansas. In the same vein as her collaborative work, she uses the curated exhibit to focus on platforming the artists, writers, musicians and makers whose knowledge has influenced her relationship to self and community.   

"My work is about being in relation with others and learning alongside others in a time when we have been separated from human interaction, but have desperately needed it," Barnoski said. "I invite you to share experiences and learn alongside me." 

in search of ourselves, we find each other runs indefinitely at insearchofourselves.com and the accompanying group exhibition It Was Always Us! is on display April 2-16 at Perrodin Supply Co. Programming is available online and at the gallery throughout its run. There will be a closing reception 6-8 p.m., Friday, April 16, with performances from Barnoski and participating artists, free and open to the public. Social distancing protocols and masks are required.