‘Shapeshifting: Transformations in Native American Art’ blends traditional, contemporary art forms

The allure of “Shapeshifting: Transformations in Native American Art’’ is its upending of the divide between traditional and contemporary art. What might look like a radical departure at first glance isn’t necessarily so. In two videos by Tlingit/Aleut artist Nicholas Galanin, a break dancer moves to the rhythms of a traditional tribal song, then a Tlingit dancer performs to a rap song. If you can get to the exhibit, running though April 29 at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, by all means, go. The next best thing is curling up with this catalog, edited by Karen Kramer Russell and published by the museum in association with Yale University Press.