Frank Buffalo Hyde The paintings by Onondaga artist Frank
Buffalo Hyde are layered and complex in composition. Educated at
the Institute of American Indian Arts and the Santa Fe Art
Institute, Hyde’s first creative interests were in music and
poetry, but he narrowed his focus to mixed-media painting while
in college. Hyde’s work draws upon imagery from popular
culture—advertisements, movies, television, music, and
politics—to present alternative perspectives on contemporary
Native experiences. His influences include his father Doug Hyde,
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and
Fritz Scholder, and his work confronts issues pertaining to
identity, commercialization, and processes of exoticization.
Hyde’s artwork questions labels and image perceptions, such as
those associated with being an “Indian artist.” Concerned that
this label implies that he, as a Native person, is not part of
American culture, he asserts a pro-active role for defining
Native identity in the contemporary world. Native