Featuring work and writing by artist Denae Shanidiin
See all events related to this exhibition.
Merging science fiction with cultural and spiritual traditions, Transcending Time and Space asks you to contemplate those you might’ve lost, those you miss across distances, and even those you have yet to meet.
The artworks in this ACME Lab exhibition exist as imagined gateways, objects through which we may connect with those we cannot reach on this plane.
Throughout the exhibition, the artist presents a collection of abstracted drawings, collages, photographs, and video representative of gateways and portals. Ferreira was moved to create this work based on the ever-growing tragedy of missing and murdered Indigenous people—something he explores in collaboration with Denae Shanidiin and Restoring Ancestral Winds, a Tribal coalition responding to the violence perpetrated on Indigenous communities within the Great Basin and strengthening the traditional values of Indigenous relations.
The gateways in this exhibition use imagery from history, pop culture, photographs, and text to tell stories about the people we miss. Transcending Time and Space looks at community art-making, imagined time travel, and spirituality as a vehicle for thinking about love, loss, and memory.
Located in the UMFA Emma Eccles Jones Education Center, ACME Lab is an exhibition space for art experimentation and exploration. Visitors of all ages are encouraged to ask questions, make connections across disciplines, and engage with art in new ways. The Lab promotes collaboration between museum and community through active participation—providing an avenue for mutual learning, discovery, and understanding.
Watch the recorded Artist Talk and Conversation with both Ferreira and Shanidiin and moderated by Jorge Rojas below.
David Rios Ferreira
David Rios Ferreira is a visual artist, independent curator, and museum professional. Ferreira is interested in how the past informs the present and their existence on the same plane. Issues around power, colonial history, deculturalization practices, and missing murdered Indigenous and LGBTQ people are at the root of his work. Borrowing images from historical etchings, old political cartoons, coloring books, and films, Ferreira reprocesses this imagery through layering, tracing, and collage, to create new forms, new bodies, and new futures.
In this unique moment in time, with old sociopolitical wounds resurfacing, and new ones opening, Ferreira asks us to question ourselves and the systems of power that we inhabit.
Denae Shanidiin
Denae Shanidiin, Diné and Korean artist, is born to the Diné (Navajo) Nation. She is Honágháahnii, One-Walks-Around Clan, born to the Korean race on her Father’s side. Kinłichíi’nii, the Red House People, is her Maternal Grandfather’s Clan, and the Bilagáana, White People, is her Paternal Grandfather’s Clan.
Shanidiin’s projects reveal the importance of Indigenous spirituality and sovereignty. Her work brings awareness to many contemporary First Nation’s issues including Missing and Murdered Indigenous People.
More about the collaboration
Ferreira was moved to create the work in this exhibition around the ever-growing tragedy of missing and murdered Indigenous people—something he explores in collaboration with Denae Shanidiin and Restoring Ancestral Winds, a Tribal coalition responding to the violence perpetrated on Indigenous communities within the Great Basin and strengthening the traditional values of Indigenous relations.
Watch the recorded ACME Session, Future Fantastic: Strategies for Decolonizing the Future here.
