January 16 – April 12, 2026
Opening reception: January 16, from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
This exhibition features a selection of work from the Missoula Art Museum Collection by printmaker Jason Elliott Clark. In his work, Clark explores Algonquin legends mixed with personal stories and misinformation about Native American Indian culture today. The works in the exhibition focus mainly on Clark’s early career as a printmaker in the University of Montana’s MFA program (2004) and soon after.
Clark grew up in a rural town at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains near the Tule River Indian Reservation in central California, but his family’s Algonquin traditions and legends hale from the eastern part of the country. He entered college in Hawaii and studied with a Māori artist schooled in Northwest Coast Native art. He came to Missoula to begin his graduate work at the University of Montana, where he received an MFA in printmaking in 2004. After teaching and managing the printmaking studios at the University of Louisiana in Monroe and Bemidji State University in Minnesota, he returned to Missoula in 2012. He is currently an adjunct professor and serves as the 2D and 3D technician in the School of Visual and Media Arts at the University of Montana. He has also been a guest artist at MATRIX Press on two occasions.
Clark says, “My work is rooted in the traditional teachings and beliefs of my ancestors and the erroneous teachings and beliefs of western society about Native Americans. The subjects portrayed in my art are from personal experiences and the legends of my Algonquin heritage. I am also interested in what people are being taught about Native Americans by western culture through parents, teachers, textbooks, films, television, cartoons, consumer advertisements, products, and other transmitters of misinformation. My work deals with subjects that I have observed or experienced firsthand. These are the stories that have shaped and formed my life. They illustrate how I see the world around me and how I have learned to respect it. The images and stores in my work are reflections or parts of me.”
