Duane Slick: A Certain Cadence of Night

June 12, 2025

–

October 12, 2025

A Certain Cadence of Night is Duane Slick’s most recent one-person exhibition in Iowa. It will showcase his broad creative output, which includes new and recent paintings, works on paper, and an exciting video installation produced in collaboration with Martin Smick. His work is inspired by modernist abstraction and infused with Native American stylizations, including regalia, geometric patterns, tribal applique, and the Iowa landscape. Slick was born in Waterloo, Iowa, and currently lives in Providence, Rhode Island. When talking about his youth, Slick says, “As a Native Iowan, my first 24 years were spent exploring the woodlands along the Cedar River and beholding the effects of weather on a daily basis.”

Storytelling is a very important part of Slick’s work. Coyote, a character who appears frequently in Native American myths, is a resourceful shapeshifter and is deeply ingrained in Native American culture. Coyote has been known as a trickster for his craftiness and sense of humor, as well as his resourcefulness; an innate ability to adapt to new environments and a resilience in the face of opposition. It’s because of his ability to shift and morph that Coyote is seen as an especially powerful character and has become an inspiring figure for Native American artists. For Slick, Coyote is akin to an alter ego, appearing frequently in his work, providing the creative license to cross boundaries and insert Native American references into modernist stylizations, “Very much like the coyote itself, [my work is] independent, resourceful, and sometime unpredictable.”

Duane Slick is a member of the Meskwaki (Fox of Iowa) and Ho-Chunk (Nebraska) nations, and he has been Professor of Painting and Printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design since 1995. Slick earned his BFA in painting from the University of Northern Iowa and his MFA in painting from the University of California, Davis. His recent exhibition, The Coyote Makes the Sunset Better (Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art) was reviewed in New York Times. His work is the collections of The National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; deCordova Sculpture Garden and Museum, Lincoln, MA; the Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA; the Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI; and the C.N. Gorman Museum, University of California, Davis.