Jeremy Dennis (b. 1990) is a contemporary fine art photographer, an enrolled Tribal Member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation in Southampton, NY, and lead artist and founder of the non-profit Ma’s House & BIPOC Art Studio, Inc. on the Shinnecock Reservation. In his work, he explores Indigenous identity, culture, and assimilation. He holds an MFA from Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, and a BA in Studio Art from Stony Brook University, NY.
Jeremy was among ten 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 – Indigenous Long Island, which uses photography and an interactive online map to showcase culturally significant Native American sites on Long Island, a topic of special meaning for Jeremy, who was raised on the Shinnecock Nation Reservation. He also created a book and exhibition from this project. In 2020, Jeremy received Dreamstarter GOLD, which includes an additional $50,000.00 in support from Running Strong for American Indian Youth. Most recently, Jeremy received the Artist to Artist Fellowship from the Art Matter Foundation.
Jeremy is also known for his ongoing 2018 Rise and Nothing Happened Here series. These works present themes of belonging, reconciliation, decolonization, and invisibility to the viewer from an Indigenous lens.
In 2013, Jeremy began working on the Stories—Indigenous Oral Stories, Dreams, and Myths series. Inspired by North American Indigenous stories, the artist staged supernatural images that transform these myths and legends into depictions of an actual experience in a photograph.
Notable Residencies: Andy Warhol Visual Arts Program (2023), SmokeSygnals (2021), Lightworks (2021), Santa Fe Art Institute (2021), Yaddo (2019), Byrdcliffe Artist Colony (2017), MDOC Storytellers’ Institute, Saratoga Springs, NY (2018), Byrdcliffe Art Residency (2018), Eyes on Main Street Residency & Festival, Wilson, NC (2018), Watermill Center, Watermill, NY (2017), and the Vermont Studio Center hosted by the Harpo Foundation (2016).
He has been part of several group and solo exhibitions, including So Spoke the Earth, the Past, and the Present at the Mason Gross Galeries at Rutgers University, NJ, Stories—Dreams, Myths, and Experiences, for The Parrish Art Museum’s Road Show (2018), 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); and Pauppukkeewis, Zoller Gallery, State College, PA (2016).
Jeremy also serves on the advisory board of the Boys & Girls Club of Shinnecock Nation, The Church of Sag Harbor, Ma’s House & BIPOC Art Studio, Inc., and WNET Group’s THIRTEEN/WLIW Community Advisory Board.
He lives and works in Southampton, New York, on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation.