The Gallery of Revolution (TGo{R}) presents
Indigenous Michigan Mycelium Roots:
A Healing Experience
featuring social justice artist
Konstance Patton Ke-nee-go-keshek
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 13, 2024 from 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
In Gallery: April 13 – June 31
Gallery Hours: Mondays, Wednesdays, & Fridays – 10 am - 2 pm or by appointment
When in bloom, the human spirit is a vessel of knowledge from the ages. Like the ancient mycelium network of fungi, we are interconnected. Sharing and storing knowledge in our DNA, from today reaching all the way back to the ancestral plane, with the blood of our ancestors pulsating throughout our bodies as we walk through our conscious and unconscious life. My life’s work is to honor that connection, through my Indigenous roots in Michigan. Through the bloodlines of the Anishinabe; I honor my family lines The Little River Band, Saginaw Chippewa, Ottawa, Grand Traverse Band, Little Traverse Band, and Grand River Band among others. I honor my grandmothers, Mildred and Henrietta, great grandfather Little Rabbit, and my great great grandfathers, Chief Pay-quo-tush and Chief Naw-ta-wa. I honor the mycelium of my Ke-nee-go-keshek (changed to ‘Otto’ by intruders) name.
The artwork that I create honors the traditions of my ancestors, and invites community members to join me in deepening the connection to theirs. We restore balance to ourselves, our families, our communities, and planet Earth. We are all healers and I want to help people tap in. We are our ancestor’s fruit like the mushroom is a fruit to the network of mycelium, activated with every step and communicating through time and space.
My Goddezz Projekt honors Mother Earth through the Divine Feminine. I explore art with the many resources available from Mother Earth to sculpt, paint, install, build, and reflect. Like a single thread of the infinite fibers of mycelium, I was young when I started my journey out of the West side, with the goal to be a dynamic passageway that reaches out into the world, exploring and learning other indigenous cultural and artistic practices, and bringing them back to where I was raised, the brilliant city of Detroit. I wanted to learn as much as I could out in the world and return with the knowledge I gained to help restore our city, to teach our youth everything I could. This project is a culmination of that work, made in love and from ideas, materials, and energy from Michigan to across the world. I am honored to share this in the place that made me who I am. I make art for future generations. In the spirit of oneness Megwetch, Megwetch, Megwetch.
Brief Biography
Konstance Patton Ke-nee-go-keshek is an Anishinabek artist and an enrolled member of The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians in Michigan. She lovingly explores her inherited artistic bloodline as a Muralist, Educator, Film, Designer, and Oral Historian, creating between Detroit and New York City since 2006. Konstance was raised in Detroit proper, spending time with her family in Northern Michigan. Her work includes Konstance Patton Ke-nee-go-keshek street art, painting, set design, illustration, sewing, sculpture, animation, audio, and storytelling.
Her street art project explores grassroots community beautification, beauty and adornment, history, and organic collaboration. The New School alumna attended the PECAH International Artist Residency in the Indian Himalayas, and her art has taken her to 24 countries so far.
In the summer of 2020, Konstance co-founded the Artist Collective, Soho Renaissance Factory (SRF), when all of the storefronts in downtown Manhattan were boarded up with plywood following riots after the murder of George Floyd. She was inspired by her childhood in Detroit, witnessing the deterioration of her city long after the white flight and how local artists would take over spaces and fill them with community art and gardens.
With this Detroit energy in mind, she led the 6-member collective, creating over 100 murals nationwide and bringing together dozens of artists. Konstance is working hard to create long-term resources for all NYC artists and build a program for young artists to make a living and create in both creative centers.
In the summer of 2021, she founded the Be A Lover Festival in NYC, a live street art and performance-based community walking tour with over 60 artists in 4 neighborhoods, including Soho, Noho, and the East Village. Her work can be seen at the NoMo Soho Hotel, and she was a nominee for IFundWomen’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2021.
Konstance is an Artist-in-Residence at Zero Bond NYC, Chashama, and Art On The Avenues. She is a 2022 recipient of the Cast Iron Awards for Distinguished Service to the SoHo Broadway Community and was featured on The Kelly Clarkston Show.
In 2023, Konstance co-founded the art and music festival, The Potluck Detroit, which brought together some of Detroit’s most dynamic artists for a weekend of healing through creation. The festival also featured sound healing, yoga, juicing workshops, and a session with a licensed therapist. The art and music festival partners with her sister, integrated health practitioner Kendra Patton, and multimedia artist Wes Taylor of the Talking Dolls Studio in Detroit. Konstance is a social justice artist who creates for future generations. In the spirit of oneness Megwetch, Megwetch, Megwetch.