Art Preview

The flyer for Josh Jones' Injunuity art show depicts a head-dressed Native American cartoon character gleefully gassing an undersized hotrod beneath the tagline "Start your Injuns!" A throwback to the comically bizarre work of Ed Roth and R. Crumb, the illustration is indicative of the unhinged spirit of the event Jones has been assembling for four years during Gathering of Nations.

Jones sees Injunuity as an alternative to the more tradition-based festivities of the week. The initial idea was that "it would be nice to showcase the other side of Native artists and art without being landscape and coyotes," he says, laughing.

Jones has brought in a large array of artists working in different mediums, including graffiti, graphic design, body painting and live music. "When you think of Native artists, you don't think of graphic designer or animator or any of that," he says.

Injunuity is part of the the Black Market Goods series, a "nomadic" run of art events occurring roughly every two months that Jones has been coordinating since 2005. As the events became more successful, Jones, 33, tried his hand at running gallery spaces. But it's the one-night-only-blowout formula that's been most successful for him. "It became very stagnant," Jones says of running a full-time gallery. With his nomadic shows, "it's basically a one-time thing, so people come in and it kind of pushes buyers to buy art that they might not see again."

This year's Injunuity will be housed at Amped Performance Center and will include about a dozen visual artists. Among them are Xavier Quintero, whose video-game-inspired illustrations include an homage to da Vinci's "The Last Supper," with Christ and the Apostles replaced by Super Mario Bros. characters. Quintero's also got a Ms. Pac-Man fashioned as Our Lady of Guadalupe. Other contributors include illustrator and printer Corey Yazzie, graff artist Paul Jameson and photographer Rick Lujan. Jones will also unveil a new series of what he deems his "Native pop art" paintings.

But Injunuity is just as much a party as it is an exhibition. "I usually have body painting, or belly dancing, fire dancers, just some sort of entertainment that would go against your idea of what an art show would be," says Jones. "It's not sweater vests or cheese and wine. It's basically like a rock star of the art shows."

The stage will be populated by DJ Wae Funky spinning house and '80s, plus musical acts Discotays, Dan K., Dancestry, Fernando Moore and S.O.L. (Flip over to this week’s Music section for more on that.) With four body painters working on models and Jones offering Navajo tacos and frybread, you can bet your Rat Fink sticker collection that it's worth the $3 admission.