About

Aha, hanwe pi! Sydney Pursel iganye ki. Báxoje mi nyi ki. Sydney Jane Brooke Campbell Maybrier Pursel (yeah, its a mouthful) is my artist name. I’m a small Native American and caucasian woman who wants to take up as much space as possible and incorporate ALL of the various identities I hold, hence the long name. In my art practice, I am interested in interactive, socially-engaged, and community-based work. I use my artwork to educate others about representation, identity, food politics, language loss, assimilation, appropriation, and reclamation. I also participate in collaborative projects amongst my own tribal community focusing on art and culture. I am the chair of the Iowa Tribe arts and culture committee and vice-chair of the powwow committee.

In 2022, I accepted a position at the University of Kansas Spencer Museum of Art as the curator for public practice, so I’m coming to terms with calling myself a curator now, too. In this role, I connect the public with the museum in new, accessible, and inclusive ways and involve them in the curatorial process.

My work has been shown at public parks, universities, galleries and alternative spaces in Atchison, KS; Columbia, MO; Fort Collins, CO; Fulton, MO; Highland, KS; Iowa City, IA; Kansas City, MO; Lawrence, KS; Muncie, IN; New York, NY; San Francisco, CA; Santa Fe, NM; Seattle, WA; Sheridan, WY; Toronto, ON; Ucross, WY; Vermillion, SD; Wichita, KS and White Cloud, KS.

Exhibitions I helped curate include: Ioway, Here to Stay; Echoes in Time, New Interpretations of the Fruitlands Museum Collection; ReImagining Iowa (5 Ioway Artists); The Object Feels; Separate and Not Equal, A History of Race and Education in America; Progress Report, Education in Lawrence

I received my MFA in Expanded Media in 2017 from the University of Kansas and my BFA in Painting in 2011 from the University of Missouri. I am an enrolled member of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska.