Gail Tremblay
December 15, 1945 - May 3, 2023
Gail lived and worked in Olympia, Washington. She contributed to the arts and cultural life of the Pacific Northwest and beyond for decades through her interdisciplinary artwork, critical writing, and poetry. Tremblay has been featured in numerous anthologies and exhibitions, including the canonical group show The Submuloc Show/Columbus Wohs: A Visual Commentary on the Columbus Quincentennial from the Perspective of America's First People (1992-94). Her artwork is included in many notable public collections, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Brooklyn Museum, New York; Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian, Washington, DC; and the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts.
Tremblay retired from teaching at The Evergreen State College in 2016, where, since 1980, she mentored hundreds of students in visual art, creative writing, and Native American Studies. She was a founding member of The Evergreen State College Longhouse and remained active on their advisory board.
It is widely known that throughout Gail Tremblay's four decades long career she was embraced by Native American artists and scholars, plus she was exhibited by and collected by institutions with significant American and Native American departments. Her artwork, writing and advocacy brought much valued insights and contributions to the fields of Native American arts and culture. She recently clarified that though she said her father had Indigenous ancestry, she was not an enrolled member of an Indigenous Nation. Preliminary research of tribal government records does not confirm her extended family's enrollment , nor has she been certified by an Indigenous Nation as a non-member Native American artisan.. Finding exact details of her history and genealogy are now additionally challenged with her recent passing and none of her immediate family members are living. As a result, Gail's work may not be described as of Native American origin or as made by a non-member Native American artisan of an Indigenous Nation. Froelick Gallery is honored to have worked with Gail for the past 20 years of her life. Her artwork, poetry, and writings stand on their own as treasured contributions to the American and Native American experience.