Jundt Art Museum Opens New Year with ‘Ric Gendron: Rattlebone’ Exhibition Jan. 23

SPOKANE, Washington – The Jundt Art Museum at Gonzaga University will open the new year with the exhibition titled “Ric Gendron: Rattlebone,” featuring paintings from the artist’s 30-year career, as well as historic and contemporary cultural objects from the artist’s family. The exhibition runs through April 2.

Gendron, an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, was born on the Colville Reservation in Northeastern Washington and grew up in Coulee Dam and Spokane. His mother was a member of the Umatilla Tribe and his father was a Colville Tribe member.

“For thirty years, Ric Gendron has been quietly and intensely creating a deeply imaginative, sincere, culturally authentic, approachable body of work – beautiful moving paintings,” said Ben Mitchell, the exhibition’s curator.

Gendron is an accomplished guitar player whose work is greatly influenced by the music he listens to while in his studio. His paintings and prints are grounded in the work of Francis Bacon and the pioneering American Native painters Fritz Scholder, T. C. Cannon, and Harry Fonseca. Gendron also draws inspiration from the Inland Northwest landscape and its wildlife, traditional powwows and cultural celebrations, as well as American rock and roll, soul and blues music, and pop culture including comics and television.

The Jundt Art Museum is the last stop for this traveling exhibition, which has already visited Missoula Art Museum (Montana), Tamástslikt Cultural Institute (Pendleton, Oregon), Museum of Northwest Art (La Conner, Washington), and The Museum of Contemporary Native Arts: A Center of the Institute of American Indian Arts (Santa Fe, New Mexico).   Gendron studied at Cornish College of Arts, Eastern Washington University, and received his art degree from Spokane Falls Community College.

A free public reception for Gendron will be held from 5-7 p.m., Friday, Jan. 23. A free public exhibition walk-through with Gendron will begin at 10:30 a.m., Friday, Jan. 30. The Jundt Art Museum will offer free scheduled staff or docent-led tours of “Ric Gendron: Rattlebone” for school, community and church groups.

For tour information, call (509) 313-6613 or email Karen Kaiser at kaiser@gonzaga.edu.

Exhibitions are free and are open to the public Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. For exhibition times and general museum information, call (509) 313-6843 or visit the museum online at www.gonzaga.edu/jundt.

The museum’s exhibitions are always free and are open to the public Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. The museum is closed Sundays and University holidays. For exhibition times and general museum information, please call (509) 313-6843 or visit the museum online at www.gonzaga.edu/jundt.