Fire Island Artist Residency

Photo: Jeremy Dennis Photography

On This Site: Indigenous Long Island, an art-based interactive map of Long Island

Fire Island Artist Residency is pleased to announce the first commission as a part of its Fire Island Histories Project, titled On This Site by artist Jeremy Dennis.

Fire Island Artist Residency commissioned artist Jeremy Dennis (Shinnecock Nation, born 1990) to expand upon his ongoing project On This Site: Indigenous Long Island, an art-based interactive map of Long Island, New York that aims to preserve sacred, culturally significant and historical Native American landscapes through photography and site specificity. Dennis gathers and combines archaeological, anthropological, historical and oral stories to build out the project. 

For this collaboration with FIAR, Dennis spent time on-site researching and photographing the communities of Cherry Grove and The Pines, Fire Island, New York.  FIAR is honored to support Dennis’s project through this collaboration, which endeavors to expand knowledge and awareness of the local Native communities of the Unkechaug, Secatogue and Shinnecock peoples, who are the rightful custodians of the land on which FIAR takes place.

In 2021 the Fire Island Artist Residency (FIAR) launches the Fire Island Histories Project, an on-going series of commissions by artists, historians, scholars and writers, whose mission is to mine the many complex histories of the place, peoples and communities who have populated Fire Island, from the original stewards of the land to the present day. The first commissions include an indigenous histories project with artist Jeremy Dennis, a lesbian histories project with Esther Newton and Dr. Ksenia M. Soboleva in 2022, and a forthcoming history of the Fire Island Blackout Weekend in 2023.

Jeremy Dennis (born 1990) is a contemporary fine art photographer and a member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation. In his work, he explores indigenous identity, assimilation, and tradition. 

Dennis was one of 10 recipients of a 2016 Dreamstarter Grant from the national non-profit organization Running Strong for American Indian Youth. He was awarded $10,000 to pursue his project, On This Site, which uses photography and an interactive online map to showcase culturally significant Native American sites on Long Island, a topic of special meaning for Dennis, who was raised on the Shinnecock Nation Reservation. He also created a book and exhibition from this project. Most recently, Dennis received the Creative Bursar Award from Getty Images in 2018 to continue his series Stories. 

In 2013, Dennis began working on the series, Stories—Indigenous Oral Stories, Dreams and Myths. Inspired by North American indigenous stories, the artist staged supernatural images that transform these myths and legends to depictions of an actual experience in a photograph. 

Dennis holds an MFA from Pennsylvania State University, PA, and a BA in Studio Art from Stony Brook University, NY. He has been awarded the Light Work Artist Residency, Syracuse, NY (2021), North Mountain Residency, Shanghai, WV (2018), MDOC Storytellers' Institute, Saratoga Springs, NY (2018).  Eyes on Main Street Residency & Festival, Wilson, NC (2018), Watermill Center, Watermill, NY (2017) and the Vermont Studio Center residency hosted by the Harpo Foundation (2016). 

He has been part of several group and solo exhibitions, including E Pluribus Unum, Parrish Art Museum, NY (2021); STTLMNT, multiple US locations/web-based (2020); Landscape Art and Virtual Travel: Highlights from the Collections of the HRM and Art Bridges, Hudson River Museum, NY (2020); Stories, From Where We Came, The Department of Art Gallery, Stony Brook University (2018); Trees Also Speak, Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, SUNY College at Old Westbury, NY (2018); Nothing Happened Here, Flecker Gallery at Suffolk County Community College, Selden, NY (2018); On This Site: Indigenous People of Suffolk County, Suffolk County Historical Society, Riverhead, NY (2017); Pauppukkeewis, Zoller Gallery, State College, PA (2016); and Dreams, Tabler Gallery, Stony Brook, NY (2012). 

In 2021 Dennis opened Ma’s House & BIPOC Art Studio Inc, a not-for-profit communal art space based on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation in Southampton, New York. The family house, built in the 1960s, serves as Dennis’ house to manage the project that includes a residency program for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), art studio, library, along with hosting an array of art and history-based programs for tribal members and the broader local community. 

www.jeremynative.com