Hosh, an apparel startup with an Indigenous focus, collaborates again with Marcel Dzama
It marks at least the second collaboration between Hosh and Dzama, who does not identify as Native American or First Nations.
Market and Money
An apparel startup that has positioned itself around amplifying Native American and First Nations artists has collaborated with Canadian artist Marcel Dzama, describing the project as a way to bring new audiences to the platform.
Hosh, which launched within the past year and is co-founded by Navajo weaver and curator D.Y. Begay, has framed its model around creating art market opportunities for underrepresented Indigenous artists and giving them control over how their work is presented.
The company said in an email that it had partnered with Dzama on a new shirt design featuring a small, human-like figure with large butterfly wings and the text “SIN FRONTERAS,” which translates to “without borders” in Spanish.
“The new work explores the theme of an apocalypse caused by climate change,” Dzama said in a statement.
The release also appears to include an edition of colored prints with an expanded design, as indicated by press images provided. The company did not specify when the works would go live on its website, but teased that it would be "soon."
It marks at least the second collaboration between Hosh and Dzama, following the company's signed edition of just 75 shirts with an artwork titled The Drawn in moonlight, which is being sold by David Zwirner on the gallery's Platform Art website.
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Dzama, a leading contemporary artist represented by the mega-gallery David Zwirner, does not identify as Native American or First Nations.
The 51-year-old artist rose to prominence in the late 1990s with his ink and watercolor drawings and now works across multiple mediums, often depicting masked figures, animals, dancers and other fantastical characters drawn from childhood imagery, fairy tales and folklore.
Born in Winnipeg, Canada, Dzama received his BFA in 1997 from the University of Manitoba and joined David Zwirner the following year. He has since had 15 solo exhibitions with the gallery, alongside numerous museum shows globally.
His work is held in major museum collections, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Tate in London, the Reina Sofía in Madrid and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
In response to questions from Urgent Matter, Hosh said it does not plan to regularly collaborate with artists outside the Native community, describing the collaboration as part of its efforts to expand awareness of its artists and platform.
“At this moment, we don’t have a plan to collaborate with artists outside the Native community because there are so many artists within the community who we want to work with,” co-founder Tom Tarica said.
“It was great to work with Marcel, both to connect his amazing audience to Hosh artists who they might not already know and to offer Marcel Hosh’s platform so he could advocate for Native artists, which is important to him.”
Tarica said the collaboration grew out of a personal relationship and a prior event hosted by the company in Santa Fe alongside the Indian Market, where Dzama participated and created a poster.
“Marcel has an appreciation and high regard for First Nations art and was excited when I told him I was starting Hosh and about the brand’s mission,” Tarica said. “Working with Marcel is consistent with Hosh’s desire to amplify the brand’s mission and artists to reach new audiences. We’re now excited to make a T-shirt in collaboration with him."
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