Bio
Don Bailey is known for his
complex, richly colorful compositions. An enrolled member
of the Hupa tribe, Bailey was raised on the Hoopa Valley
Reservation in California. He teaches fine arts and art
history at the Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon - a
school founded in 1880 as the first federal Indian boarding
school west of the Mississippi and oldest still in
existence. The Hoopa Valley landscape, traditional design,
and the socio-political legacy of the reservation system
all inform Bailey's art. His work honors those who came
before him with reference to traditional dancers and basket
designs, raises questions about the conventional telling of
Indian history, and winks at the worn clich's about Indian
artists living in both the past and modern worlds.
Don Bailey's work is in the permanent collection of the Hallie Ford Museum in Salem Oregon. He works out of his studio in Portland, Oregon.
Click here to contact Don Bailey and learn where else you can see his work in person.