Brian D. Tripp, They Think They Own the Place

Before entering college, Brian Tripp was drafted and sent to North Carolina as an Army payroll clerk. After his duty in Vietnam, he studied at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California, receiving a bachelor’s degree in Art. He continued at Humboldt as an art instructor until 1992. As an honored Karuk traditionalist, singer and dancer, Tripp has been instrumental in the preservation of his people’s traditions. In addition to being a highly regarded contemporary visual artist, Tripp serves as a cultural consultant for a number of organizations.

Tripp has exhibited and lectured in San Francisco and New York, as well as having done residencies at the Kunst in Der Landshaft, Prigglitz, Austria, Ecoe d’Art Aix en Provence, Provence, France, and the Open Air Modern Art Museum in Pedvale, Lativa. His paintings are modern and hard-edged, yet faithfully based on Karuk designs. He ranges from avant-garde to forms that have been passed down from generation to generation in Karuk regalia. He utilizes many different forms of media, using materials as varied as paint, aluminum foil, street signs, glass, and wood. The New York Times once described his work as “Indian themes, innovatively handled, whose beautifully modulated drawings pay contemporary tribute to traditional geometric design.” (on reverse)