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Northwest Coast Native art, as practiced by First Nations and tribes from the mouth of the Columbia River to British Columbia and Southeast Alaska, is considered one of the great sculptural traditions of the world. Historically, objects ranged from masks and totem poles to bentwood boxes and other types of utilitarian objects and were characterized by the use of formlines and shapes referred to as ovoids, U forms, and S forms. The most common materials used were cedar, stone, and copper, and the most common colors were red and black. The subject matter of these sculptures and other objects included humans and animals that made up the rich, vibrant, and dynamic legacy of Northwest Coast mythology, including myths associated with Raven and Thunderbird. 

During the first half of the twentieth century, when Canadian and US government repression was at its height, relatively few Native artists were producing traditional Northwest Coast Native art, but by the late 1940s, a handful of artists and academics such as Mungo Martin, Charles Gladstone, Bill Holm, and Bill Reid spearheaded a resurgence of traditional Northwest Coast art forms and designs. Over the past seventy-five years, the  tradition has continued to thrive and prosper as one generation of artists has trained the next in carving techniques. And, since the 1960s, Native artists have used the printmaking medium as a vehicle for sharing their history and culture with audiences around the world. 

Over the last thirty-five years, Oregon collectors George and Colleen Hoyt have amassed one of the finest private collections of contemporary Northwest Coast Native art in the United States. TRANSFORMATIONS: The George and Colleen Hoyt Collection of Northwest Coast Art traces the history of contemporary Northwest Coast Native art from the 1950s to the present. Organized by Rebecca Dobkins, professor of anthropology and curator of Indigenous art, the exhibition includes works by some of the foremost Native artists of our region, including Doug Cranmer, Robert Davidson, Beau Dick, and Susan Point, among many others. The collection is a promised gift from the Hoyts to the Hallie Ford Museum of Art. 

In addition to the objects on display, the exhibition is accompanied by a wide variety of education programs, including carving demonstrations, a film presentation, and a gallery talk with exhibition curator Rebecca Dobkins. In conjunction with the exhibition, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art has published a full-color, 216-page hardcover book with an essay on the Hoyts and contemporary Northwest Coast Native art by Dobkins, biographical information on the artists assembled by Tasia Riley, a bibliography for further reading, and more than 150 color illustrations of objects in the collection.