Innholdsfortegnelse for October-November 2023/No. 47 i Native American Art Magazine

Welcome to the October/November issue of Native American Art magazine! As we usher in fall, we are presenting a very rich issue with special features that we can’t wait to introduce to you. This issue includes our annual museum guide, which will include the significant history that Native American art represents. We are excited to offer this robust guide for collectors and lovers of art history. Executive editor Michael Clawson writes about the importance of museums in his editor’s letter on the next page. In addition, we bring you our annual Textiles & Weavings section. This category includes blankets, rugs, shawls, robes and other intricate textiles—some truly beautiful and popular works. This 26-page section starts by highlighting the new Martin Scorsese movie coming out this month, Killers of the Flower…

CHEROKEE, NC On November 4 and 5, the world-class Kananesgi Art Market & Fashion Show will return to Harrah’s Cherokee Casino & Resort in Cherokee, North Carolina. The two-day show will feature a suite of events and activities. With more than 20 designers at the fashion show and more than 30 artists at the market, the events will feature more than 50 creators from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Last year’s shows were a huge hit, and organizers are excited to bring back a new series of events and activities. The fashion show and market are a collaboration between the Sequoyah Fund and the Ray Kinsland Leadership Institute, which, the organization notes, “serves as a platform for artists and designers to express their creativity, receive professional and business development…

Hailing from Navajo, New Mexico, a small town in the Navajo Nation, Patrick Dean Hubbell brings an Indigenous perspective to the contemporary art world. Informed by life in reservation border towns and a couple hundred years of European expansion in his ancestral homelands, Hubbell’s work is poignant, cutting and clever. From blind contour drawings of “cowboys and Indians” to works that literally deconstruct classical paintings and the tropes that go with them, Hubbell’s physical practice is wide-ranging. Cotton canvas removed from stretcher bars, painted, cut into fringe and rehung. Distorted portraits aggressively breaching gilded frames. Drawings draped over saddle racks, creating forms that feel like blankets and the bodies they might keep warm. Knockoff “tribal” print textiles, their appropriated patterns obscured by action painting and gestural, wildly colored marks. Hubbell’s…

SANTA FE, NM In an unexpected juxtaposition, the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture (MIAC) presents Horizons: Weaving Between the Lines with Diné Textiles, an exhibition that explores the connections between weaving and photography as modes of engagement with place in the American Southwest. By situating these two media in conversation, and thinking of the horizon as both a point of connection—between sky and earth—and a line of separation, the exhibition examines each as a way of seeing and knowing Dinétah, the Navajo homeland. “As Horizons took shape, we began to have conversations about land, space and light,” says Dr. Hadley Jensen, co-curator of the exhibit with Rapheal Begay (Diné) in collaboration with an advisory committee of Diné artists, educators, and scholars Lynda Teller Pete, Kevin Aspaas, Larissa Nez, Tyrrell…

Last year, the Field Museum in Chicago replaced its Native North America Hall with a permanent exhibition four years in the making, Native Truths: Our Voices, Our Stories. Debra Yepa-Pappan (Jemez Pueblo/Korean), community engagement coordinator for the project, said at the time, “For Native visitors, I also hope there is an instant connection. I hope they see themselves, see their relatives, their grandparents, and aunties and uncles. For non-Native visitors, we’ve been working to make this an immersive experience that allows them to come into our home—learning from us, not just about us.” The museum explains, “The exhibition was created with the guidance of an advisory council of 11 Native American scholars and museum professionals, and in partnership with 130 collaborators representing over 105 tribes. Visitors can experience stories told…

Indigenous art and culture in museum settings over the past 100-plus years have typically been interpreted by Anglos—outsiders to the art forms on display. Art history has silenced Indigenous perspectives, instead speaking for and about Native people, whether those Native people were the makers or the subject of an artwork. While Native viewpoints are increasingly being included in museum displays of Indigenous art, what if those perspectives were taken a giant step further and also applied to the Anglo artwork on view, creating a groundbreaking museological role reversal? What would art history look like then? Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine, has achieved such a shakeup through its collection reinstallation, Painted: Our Bodies, Hearts, and Village, on view through July 28, 2024. Here, Pueblo perspectives are central not…

Early Days: Indigenous Art from the McMichael Collection is the first exhibition of Canadian Indigenous art of this scope to be presented internationally. Organized by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in collaboration with Indigenous scholars, traditional knowledge keepers and living artists, the exhibition includes 112 works by 61 artists, representing roughly 25 nations from coast to coast. Showcasing the diversity and vitality of Indigenous art in Canada, Early Days makes its United States debut at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, where it will remain on view through January 2, 2024. The exhibition features objects ranging from 18th-century ceremonial regalia to the work of vanguard artists of the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s such as Norval Morrisseau, Carl Beam and Alex Janvier, as well as leading contemporary Indigenous artists like Kent Monkman,…

The Eiteljorg Museum’s mission is to inspire an appreciation and understanding of the arts, histories and cultures of the Indigenous peoples of North America and all the diverse peoples of the American West. The Eiteljorg serves the public through engaging exhibitions, educational programs and special events that emphasize cultural diversity. Located in downtown Indianapolis, the Eiteljorg is the only museum of its kind in the Midwest. The museum’s newly redesigned Native American Galleries opened to the public in June 2022 and feature the permanent exhibition, Expressions of Life: Native Art in North America. The Eiteljorg has a special focus on artworks and cultural items by the Native peoples of the Great Lakes region, of which Indiana is a part. Well-known Native artists whose works are on view include Kay WalkingStick…

Experience 400 years of history through groundbreaking exhibitions, outstanding collections, immersive films and thought-provoking conversations among renowned historians and public figures at the New-York Historical Society, New York’s first museum. A great destination for history since 1804, the museum and the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library convey the stories of the city and nation’s diverse populations, expanding our understanding of who we are as Americans and how we came to be. Among the museum’s highlights are the Gallery of Tiffany Lamps, Picasso’s Le Tricorne, Nari Ward’s We the People, an Oval Office recreation, Thomas Cole’s The Course of Empire and Keith Haring’s Pop Shop ceiling. Major Upcoming Exhibitions The Collection: New Conversations Ongoing Acts of Faith: Religion and the American West Sept. 22, 2023-Feb. 25, 2024 Enchanting Imagination: The Objets d’Art…

Maryhill Museum of Art is housed in an historic Beaux Arts mansion situated high above the Columbia River in south central Washington state. The museum’s Indigenous Peoples of North America Gallery contains material from throughout Native North America, with a particular emphasis on Indigenous basketry and the Columbia River Plateau region.Recent changing exhibitions have featured the work of American classical realist (Boston School) painters and contemporary Indigenous artists. The museum collections contain works by Rick Bartow, Joe Feddersen, Lillian Pitt, Cara Romero, Jackie Larson Bread and Maynard Lavadour. These periodically rotate onto view. Diverse aspects of the museum collection—including the Théâtre de la Mode, American classical realist art and Orthodox icons—are profiled in online exhibitions on the museum’s website. Maryhill’s outdoor William and Catherine Dickson Sculpture Park features more than…

SANTA FE, NM A new show opening at King Galleries’ Santa Fe location pairs the artwork of brothers Joseph and Sergio Lugo for the very first time. As the sons of esteemed potter Nancy Youngblood, art truly runs in their blood. Featuring smooth, sleek forms and intricate designs, both Joseph and Sergio’s pottery carry notes of their mother’s work but with a uniqueness all their own. Their new work for the upcoming exhibition, Earthen Echos, takes inspiration from traditional Santa Clara carved and painted pottery, imbued with their own distinctive styles and interpretations. “I’m really happy and excited about [Sergio and I] being able to work together because growing up, we had the opportunity to be surrounded by all of this art, and we both learned a lot from our…

Major anniversaries can be wonderful and stressful all at the same time, especially when the weather is determined to make its presence known. That was the story of the remarkable 2022 Santa Fe Indian Market, which was the waterlogged centennial of the famous market. Fast forward a year to August 2023, and the pressure was off the artists, the organizers and the market’s fervent supporters. And, best of all, the weather held for nearly the entire weekend. SWAIA couldn’t have asked for a better set of conditions as collectors turned up in droves to buy artwork and support some of the most talented artists in the country. Events kicked off Friday, August 18, during the Best of Show Ceremony, where Santa Clara Pueblo potter Jennifer Tafoya was given the top…

DALLAS, TX Heritage Auctions’ Ethnographic Art American Indian, Pre-Columbian and Tribal Art Signature Auction will bring an array of treasures to the market this fall, including an impressive selection of Navajo weavings, a beautiful Sioux girl’s beaded hide dress, as well as numerous Hopi, Acoma, Zuni and San Ildefonso polychrome bowls—and that’s only naming a few. The November 9 sale is expected to have nearly 400 lots on offer. Bidding opens on October 19. “I have big beautiful historic pots as well jewelry ranging from the turn of the century to contemporary times, [both] silver and gold,” says Delia E. Sullivan, Heritage Auctions’ director of ethnographic art. “Collectors of weavings will be impressed by the number of classic and late classic Navajo weavings in the sale. We have chief’s blankets,…

The art market is a fascinating place that often begins with artists and galleries and ends with museums. Of course, that’s a vast oversimplification of how art moves through a market, changing owners as it goes, but it’s fair to say that many important works do eventually end up at museums. In many cases, this is a great development for a piece of art because it means that the work will be protected and preserved, and it will also occasionally be displayed within the galleries of a museum. And it’s there where new visitors can view at it, learn about it and it can offer important context to larger stories about people, places and cultures. But museums are also supposed to challenge us. They are supposed to push us into…

1. Jesse Robbins Jewelry Jewelry artist Jesse Robbins, fresh off his successful showing at this year’s Santa Fe Indian Market, is offering this Thomas Curtis ranger belt buckle set. “Curtis, one of the greatest and most talented silversmiths, set the bar high for elegance, design, precision stamp and file work in jewelry,” Robbins says of the piece. “His legacy will live on forever through the incredible works of art that flowed from his hands and heart. A well-rounded collection cannot be complete without a piece of his jewelry front and center. His work inspires the collector and most smiths following in his footsteps.” For more information on the buckle set, contact Robbins for more information. www.jesserobbinsjewelry.com jesserobbinsaz@gmail.com 2. Antique N.A. Baskets Southern Arizona’s Antique N.A. Baskets, which specializes in baskets…

When Jon and Karen Huntsman were building their log cabin chalet in Deer Valley, Utah, Karen knew that she wanted it to be Western “to represent the beauty of the West. I love the beauty and what it brings to our heart and soul.” Karen was first attracted to Navajo wearing blankets, in which the artists had woven their love. “It just warmed my heart with each weaving. I felt so connected with the weavers.” Thus began a collecting mission with the help of Joe and Cynthia Tanner of Tanner’s Indian Arts in Gallup, New Mexico. Joe’s family has been trading with Native American artists since the mid-1800s. “When we started displaying in the cabin,” Cynthia recalls, “Joe decided to look for J.B. Moore weavings. Moore was the first to…

Like many Native American traditions and art forms, weaving and textile creations carry a great deal of history and significance. Often tied to place and tribal affiliation, these works that were once utilitarian became celebrations of heritage and another means of storytelling. For the Navajo, symbol and motif are used in reference to the teachings of Spider Woman—believed to have “weaved the web of the universe.” Throughout this section of weavings and textiles, all of them available for purchase, you’ll witness impressive blankets and rugs that are shining examples of elaborate skill and deep cultural connection. Also learn from galleries, museums and artists about an array of design, technique and narrative. Heard Museum Shop The Heard Museum Shop ensures the integrity and authenticity of its many offerings by dealing directly…

How does an artist know who they are? Poet John Trudell once said to “follow the lines.” Jaune Quick-to-See Smith has been doing just that for 50 years. Her lines are maps. After a ground-shaking, blockbuster show at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, Smith, a citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation, was the first Native American woman to have a solo show there and will see the retrospective exhibit, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map, travel to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. It will be on view from October 15 through January 21, 2024. Smith has had a nearly five-decade career as an artist, she is also an activist, curator, educator and advocate. Organized by the Whitney, the show is a recognition…

Landscape paintings are rarely just that—trees and mountains. Consciously or subconsciously, they’re imbued with meaning, subtext. Such is the case for Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee) as it was for the Hudson River School painters of the 19th century. The two come together this fall at the New-York Historical Society for Kay WalkingStick/Hudson River School, an exhibition placing landscape paintings by WalkingStick in conversation with highlights from NYHS’ esteemed collection of Hudson River School paintings. Landscapes, yes, but more than that. Founded in the mid-19th century along the Hudson River in New York by Thomas Cole, the Hudson River School was a loose community of landscape painters exalting America’s natural beauty. Frederic Edwin Church, Albert Bierstadt and George Inness are also associated with the group. Asher B. Durand is WalkingStick’s favorite Hudson…

Opening on October 6, SITE Santa Fe presents a thrilling look at 25 new and existing works by multidisciplinary Tlingit and Unangaxˆ artist Nicholas Galanin. Titled Interference Patterns, the exhibition will feature a selection of works made between 2006 through 2023, including video installation, sculpture, performance art, works on paper and installation. SITE Santa Fe representatives share that this comprehensive collection is “celebrating Indigenous knowledge and reenvisioning legacies and consequences of colonization and occupation. Boldly and intentionally disrupting colonial narratives and fiction by centering Indigenous perspectives, Galanin’s varied works touch on the intersection of land and water, cultural erasure, forced assimilation, natural and forced migration, environmental violence and climate crisis with settler-colonial capitalism.” Galanin succinctly adds that the exhibition reflects the way “natural patterns” are being interfered with. “These works…

Since its founding in 1929, the Heard Museum has grown in size and stature, gaining international recognition for the quality of its collections, world class exhibitions, educational programming and unparalleled festivals. Dedicated to advancing American Indian art, the Heard successfully presents the stories of American Indian people from a first-person perspective, along with exhibitions showcasing the beauty and vitality of both traditional and contemporary art. The Heard Museum sets the standard for collaboration with American Indian artists and tribal communities, offering visitors a distinctive perspective on the art of Native people, particularly those from the Southwest. One of Arizona’s largest cultural organizations, the Heard seeks to inspire and educate visitors about Indigenous art and culture by presenting exhibitions, managing a library and archival resource collection and providing impactful public programs.…

Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West is a premier cultural institution situated in Old Town Scottsdale, Arizona. Opened in January 2015, the museum resides on the historic grounds of the Loloma Transit Station (N. Marshall Way and E. 1st Street). With a sprawling two-story layout encompassing 43,000 square feet, the museum showcases the art, culture and rich history spanning 19 states in the American West, Western Canada and Mexico. Former Scottsdale mayor Herb Drink-water (1936-1997), who served from 1980 to 1996, envisioned the museum, which became a reality through the City of Scottsdale’s ownership and the dedicated operation by the Scottsdale Museum of the West, a non-profit organization established in 2007. Major Upcoming Exhibitions Decades: Willy Matthews Oct.10, 2023-April 28, 2024 Inner Light: The Art of Tom Gilleon Jan.…

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art is one of the leading arts institutions in the region. It presents a dynamic range of exhibitions organized from prestigious museums around the world. The museum’s own diverse collection features highlights from North America, Europe and Asia, with particular strengths in American art and post-war abstraction. The permanent collection also boasts one of the world’s largest public collections of Dale Chihuly glass, a major collection of photography by Brett Weston and the definitive museum collection of works by the Washington Color painter Paul Reed. The museum’s renowned Samuel Roberts Noble Theater screens the finest international, independent, documentary and classic films. Amenities include the Museum Store and the Roof Terrace. The Oklahoma City Museum of Art is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and…

ONGOING PHOENIX, AZ Early Days: Indigenous Art from the McMichael Heard Museum (602) 252-8840 www.heard.org ONGOING TAOS, NM Art of Timeless Beauty, the Navajo Child’s Blanket Taos Art Museum (575) 758-2690 www.taosartmuseum.org ONGOING WASHINGTON, D.C. The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans National Gallery of Art (202) 289-3360 www.nga.gov ONGOING SANTA FE, NM Horizons: Weaving Between the Lines with Diné Textiles Museum of Indian Arts & Culture  (505) 476-1269 www.indianartsandculture.org OCTOBER 15-JANUARY 21, 2024 FORT WORTH, TX Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (817) 738-9215 www.themodern.org ONGOING DENVER, CO Northwest Coast and Alaska Native Art Galleries Denver Art Museum (720) 865-5000 OCTOBER 6-FEBRUARY 5 SANTA FE, NM Nicholas Galanin: Interference Patterns SITE Santa Fe (505) 989-1199 sitesantafe.org SANTA FE, NM Always in…

When moviegoers slip into a dark theater this October to take in Martin Scorsese’s newest film, Killers of the Flower Moon, they will be transported back to Oklahoma in the 1920s. Guiding them on the journey will be a stunning display of objects, props, clothing items, accessories, vehicles, historical customs and much more—all of it placed in the film to help set the stage for Scorsese’s crime drama, and tell a more accurate story about the Osage Nation and one of the darkest chapters of its history. Guiding the Apple TV+ production on this jump back in time was Julie O’Keefe, an Osage researcher who was brought onto the film in March 2022 to help make sure the production got all the details right. “The dedication to authenticity on this…

TAOS, NM Navajo, or Diné, are recognized as great masters of textile weaving, a skill rooted in the mythology of the Spider Woman who is credited with teaching them how to weave. According to legend, Spider Woman made her home atop Canyon de Chelly’s towering spire where, after weaving the web of the universe, she shared the gift—and the way of life it symbolizes—with the Navajo people. Given the significance of Spider Woman in the Diné origin story and her home’s relative proximity to Four Corners, it is no surprise that some of the most impressive weavings have emerged from the region. An upcoming exhibition at the Taos Art Museum will zoom in on a specific woven form—the Navajo child’s blanket. Art of Timeless Beauty, the Navajo Child’s Blanket, which…

It’s been said many times before that no one really owns art. We might display art in our homes and we might devote our lives to collecting it and enjoying it, but we are but a blip in the lifespan of a piece of art—it will almost certainly outlive all of us. This is why museums are so wonderful. They take on the responsibility of being stewards of art and culture for a longer period of time than we are physically capable. Museums are the safeguards to guarantee that our children and grandchildren will have access to these great objects. Museums also help us learn. They add context. They reshape ideas or sprout new ones. They challenge us. They enhance our understanding of the world. They give us reason to…

Cannupa Hanska Luger doesn’t create an installation and then decide where to put it, he figures out where it’s going and uses the space to inform the installation. He says, “You can either lean into the existing flow and movements or you can disrupt it, and I’ve always found that it’s a lot easier to find the natural movement of the space and adapt to the environment.” The artist—who is an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes of Fort Berthold and is of Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara and Lakota heritage—has a new installation that comes in the form of Speechless, an exhibition at the Nevada Museum of Art that opens October 7. “I arrived at the Nevada Museum of Art in the fall of 2021, and Cannupa was one of…

A new exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., reflects the diversity of contemporary Native art, underscoring the right of self-representation by Indigenous artists. The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans includes artwork by 50 living Native artists and was assembled by guest curator Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, an artist and citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation of Montana. The National Gallery of Art has recently made several new acquisitions of work by Native American artists, including Emmi Whitehorse, G. Peter Jemison and Marie Watt, which will be featured in the exhibition. Fog Bank will be the first piece by Whitehorse to join the National Gallery of Art’s permanent collection. She says that when she first began painting, she knew she didn’t want…

Inspired by Andy Warhol’s multimedia series of events, Exploding Plastic Inevitable, the Bates College Museum of Art will be hosting a similar exhibition that will feature a wide range of art and artists all under one roof. Exploding Native Inevitable will be on view starting October 27 at the museum in Lewiston, Maine. Co-curated by Indigenous artist Brad Kahlhamer and Bates Museum’s director and chief curator Dan Mills, the exhibition will go “beyond the museum, across campus and into the community with collaborations that bring in performers, filmmakers and writers from the surrounding region and throughout the nation,” the museum notes. Fourteen artists works will be featured: Norman Akers, Nizhonniya Austin, Alison Bremner, Jaque Fragua, Raven Halfmoon, Elisa Harkins, Sky Hopinka, Terran Last Gun, Fox Maxy, New Red Order, Mali…

The Museum of Indian Arts & Culture in Santa Fe, New Mexico, tells the stories of the Native American people of the Southwest from pre-historic through contemporary times. Its changing exhibitions draw from an unparalleled collection of Native American art and material culture representing the Pueblo, Navajo, Apache and other Indigenous cultures of the Southwest. Located on Museum Hill, the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture shares the beautiful Milner Plaza with the Museum of International Folk Art. Here, Now and Always, a major permanent exhibition at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, combines the voices of living Native Americans with ancient and contemporary artifacts and interactive multimedia to tell the complex stories of the Southwest. The Buchsbaum Gallery displays works from the region’s pueblos. Five changing galleries present…

The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian is New Mexico’s oldest non-profit museum, and the first in the city of Santa Fe to present contemporary Native American art. Founded in 1937, it has built a rich collection that spans historic and contemporary Native American art. Its collections are strong in Navajo and Pueblo jewelry, works on paper, sculpture, weaving, folk art and ceramics. The museum’s archives are extensive and include documents and records that reflect its history and founding, in addition to works by artists, researchers and photographers. With the support of the Mellon Foundation, the Wheelwright is working to digitize this significant archive and make it more accessible. The museum has a rich history of solo works by contemporary Native artists, though in its permanent gallery—which features more 700…

SALT LAKE CITY, UT Artist Eugene Tapahe’s early years on the Navajo Nation, living off the land with his grandmother, were pivotal in understanding the importance of “respecting, preserving and protecting that which is sacred—the land, water and nature,” he says. In his thrilling show of new work for Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project, hosted at Modern West Fine Art, Tapahe combines his love for nature and culture with approximately 16 photographic images—balancing past and present. “Tapahe has a distinct ability to capture the essence of his subject matter, using natural light as a means of documenting the spiritual exchange of the Ojibwe jingle dress dance and the grounds his ancestors once walked,” says Shalee Cooper, gallery director and curator. Together, the photographs in Art Heals; The Jingle Dress…

CATOOSA, OK Over the past 18 years, Cherokee Art Market has grown to become one of the largest juried markets in Oklahoma. This year’s event, taking place October 14 and 15 at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa in Catoosa, Oklahoma, features more than 150 Native American artists representing nearly 50 tribal nations from the United States and Canada. Attendees can enjoy Native American artwork in categories that include beadwork, quillwork, pottery, paintings, drawings, basketry, sculptures, textiles, photography, graphics and diverse art forms; and meet the artists to learn about their work firsthand. A youth competition showcases the creativity of the next generation of Native American talent. “Cherokee Art Market has built a reputation for excellence,” says Donna Tinnin, senior manager of museums and events for Cherokee Nation Cultural Tourism.…