Deconstructing “The West”

Michael Darmody’s Deconstructing “The West” – Thirty Years of Pulling Back The Curtain on Manifest Destiny
opening reception: Friday, February 2, 5-9 pm
on view: February 2–March 29, 2024

Featured items from the exhibition include trading post “Indian” postcard collages, stock photo company screenshots of Southwest landmarks, “renamed” Southwest landmarks, etc. Michael Darmody attended graduate school at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles. There, Darmody was trained in postmodern analysis and strategies. After earning his MFA, he landed a teaching job at the Navajo Nation which resulted in a move to the Four Corners area. Here, he found himself surrounded by Manifest Destiny tokens in every trading post, motel lobby, supermarket and gas station placing Indigenous people, white consumers, and nature itself in a destructive dance. Over the course of thirty years, Michael Darmody has focused his work on these tokens, refining them into works of art and presenting them to audiences throughout the southwest.