March 5 – May 10, 2026
As a natural storyteller, the exquisite batik works of Vernal Bogren Swift will be displayed on the east side of mezzanine gallery as a complement to the Fables, Myths, and The Stories We Share exhibition on the main floor gallery. The thirteen batiks titled Meadowlark Buried Her Father were commissioned from the North Dakota Museum of Art (2017-2019) and are inspired by the history of bone fossils in the prairie regions of North Dakota, Minnesota, and Manitoba. The batiks also address storytelling itself as a way of approaching what is called truth. “Not everything we hear is true, and in these days, we have become wary…Truth is stapled firmly to time and context and culture. Pulled free of its staples, truth drifts. Emily Dickinson said, ”Tell all the truth, but tell it slant. This is the art of good storytelling.”
Originally trained as a nurse and a commercial fisheries technician, she traveled extensively learning about art forms and stories from cultures across the globe. In 1996, she received a MFA in textiles from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. For many years, she lived in Bovey, Minnesota deep in the iron range. She later immigrated to Canada with her husband Eric, intentionally settling in Daajing Giids (British Columbia), “a few blocks from the edge where moon and tides mark time.” Swift’s artworks are in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Textile Art Museum in Washington, D.C. as well as at the North Dakota Museum of Art.
Vernal Bogren Swift, Offering Fresh Milk to Whales, 2017 – 2019. Wax resist with natural dyes and tannins on silk.
Vernal Bogren Swift, In a Dream, She Was Told to Look for Seven White Deer, 2017 – 2019. Wax resist with natural dyes and tannins on silk.
Vernal Bogren Swift, Bees Who Maybe Think This Cup is a Flower, 2017 – 2019. Wax resist with natural dyes and tannins on silk.