Hardridge’s latest work “Unbridled” is on view at Santa Fe’s Blue Rain Gallery.
The artist grew up in central Oklahoma surrounded by the artistic traditions of his culture. His formal training includes a fine arts degree in illustration and painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia. Later studies at France’s Nadaï Verdon Atelier of Decorative Arts emphasized harmony and composition.
Hardridge once painted in a very traditional, muted style until the 2014 death of his father triggered a seismic stylistic change.
“I was going through a transitional period in painting,” he said in a telephone interview from Knoxville, Tennessee. “I was studying the beadwork and trying to put together work representing loss and resistance at the same time, and the narrative of Southeast Native removal from Alabama to Oklahoma.”
Tribal governments in Oklahoma at a glance
Staff reports
Address: 2025 S Gordon Cooper Drive, Shawnee, OK 74801
Contact: 405-275-4030, www.astribe.com
Did you know? The Absentee Shawnee Tribe was one of the first seven tribes in the U.S. to become a self-governing nation during the 1990s.
Alabama Quassarte Tribal Town
Address: 101 E Broadway, P.O. Box 187 Wetumka, OK 74883
Contact: 405-452-3987, www.alabama-quassarte.org
Did you know? The Hernando de Soto expedition first encountered the Alabamas in northern Mississippi in 1540 and the Koasati in their island town on the Tennessee River.
Apache Tribe of Oklahoma
Address: P.O. Box 1330, Anadarko, OK 73005
Jacobson House continues to uphold OU s unique role in Native American art history amid struggles for funding oudaily.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from oudaily.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.