Innholdsfortegnelse for December-January 2024/No. 48 i Native American Art Magazine

CHANDLER, AZ The Basha Collection, acquired over decades by grocery store owner and famous Arizonan Eddie Basha, has been donated to two art museums in the Grand Canyon State: the Heard Museum in Phoenix and Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West. The two museums will split the collection, with many of the Native American materials going to the Heard and the Western material and some Native American objects going to Western Spirit. Many of the art objects will be outright gifts to the institutions, while others will be on long-term loan. The announcement of the donations, made October 9 at the collection’s public gallery in Chandler, Arizona, was widely expected after the Bashas’ grocery chain was sold to a California grocery company in late 2021. Founded in 1932, the…

What would you do with $20,000? Mikayla Patton (Oglala Lakota Nation) is buying a car. Well, paying off a car more accurately. Not a Mercedes Benz or a sports car, but a Honda CRV. It’s not even a new car, but a new-to-her old car that her mom has been helping with payments on since Patton had to replace her beloved 2003 Honda CRV after it finally conked out in the summer of 2022. If you think the life of a contemporary artist is glamorous—nightclubs, jet-setting to gallery openings—read that last sentence again. A Joan Mitchell Fellowship comes with an upfront, unrestricted $20,000 payment. Patton is one of 15 winners for 2023. Upon receiving the news in August, paying off that Honda CRV was at the top of her list…

How to make metal talk? Acclaimed Muscogee/Seminole jeweler Kenneth Johnson has been working on that for more than 30 years. As a contemporary Native American designer and accomplished metalsmith, he has mastered working in copper, silver, gold, platinum and palladium, as well as gems and stones. His gleaming and intricate work has been seen on award-winning director Sterlin Harjo, actress and producer Jessica Matten, tribal chiefs, at the Grammys, Spirit Awards, American Film Institute and Critics Choice Awards. Johnson has been commissioned to create custom jewelry for distinguished figures, including U.S. Supreme Court justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonja Sotomayor, Canadian Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and British House of Lords Baroness Emma Nicholson. Johnson and his work have also graced countless covers, including French Vogue. It’s all…

SCOTTSDALE, AZ For the first time in its eight-year history, Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West is putting jewelry front and center. Dazzling Array: The Richard A. Gates Collection of Native American Jewelry shines a particular light on jewelers that were integral in the early development of Scottsdale as a Native art hub. “From his standpoint as a collector, Gates has long been involved with and interested in artists making jewelry in Scottsdale, historically and up until the present day,” says Tricia Loscher, chief curator of Western Spirit. “It’s one of the reasons he felt so strongly about the collection being shown at Western spirit.” Jewelers like Charles Loloma and Kenneth Begay were some of the first artists to set up shop in Scottsdale after World War II, setting…

SANTA FE, NM Silver and Stones: Collaborations in Southwest Jewelry, now on view at the New Mexico History Museum’s Palace of the Governors, showcases a unique collaboration between Jewish merchant William C. Ilfeld and Diné silversmith David Taliman. Ilfeld had a long history in the Southwest. His grandfather opened up the Ilfeld Mercantile Shop in Las Vegas, New Mexico, in the 1860s and carried on the tradition by managing the shop’s jewelry department in the 1940s and 1950s. Taliman, who died in 1967, had his own history doing silverwork for trading posts like Maisel’s in Albuquerque and Julius Gan’s Southwest Arts and Crafts in Santa Fe. But when Ilfeld and Taliman came together, an interesting and unusual collection was formed. “I thought it was really interesting to focus on that…

TULSA, OK The Philbrook Museum is currently presenting an exhibition that explores the intersections between contemporary artwork by artists across the world alongside historic objects within the museum’s collections. On view through December 30, Trade & Transformation presents works by 13 contemporary artists, important new acquisitions and key loans, as well as historic Native American, African and Asian objects. The exhibition holds a central theme, that “every object holds a story,” and draws upon the idea that humans have the power to expand and transform their own perspectives through experiencing the stories and histories of objects. “Tracing the stories held within these objects, the exhibition is an opportunity to explore cross-cultural and trans-continental relationships, experiences, intentions and implications,” the Philbrook notes. “Our entire material culture has been influenced by trade,…

MONTCLAIR ART MUSEUM Two recent photographic works from contemporary fine art photographer Jeremy Dennis’ Rise series are now on view in the Montclair Art Museum’s Lehman Court. Dennis is an enrolled member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation on Long Island, New York, where the artist primarily shoots his photographs. “Both incisively historical and visionary for the future, Rise probes Euro-American fears of an Indigenous enemy: anxieties ingrained since the start of settler-colonialism in North America,” the museum notes. “Playing with the aesthetics of zombie movies, Dennis casts Native Americans as the undead, exposing subconscious unease as well as latent possibilities in their interactions with non-Natives.” One of the pieces in his Rise series that is now on view at Montclair Art Museum is I Could Stand Here All Night, an…

One of the most iconic jewelry design forms from the Native Southwest is the crescent-shaped naja. When the Navajo and pueblo Indians began silversmithing in the last quarter of the 19th century, they created a handsome new jewelry form, a silver crescent pendant, suspended either on a silver chain or leather thong or as a central ornament on a necklace with petal-like beads. Non-Native writers and experts initially assumed that this design was taken from Spanish colonial silver horse stalls. In 1982, Southwest scholar Clara Lee Tanner wrote an article in American Indian Art Magazine that laid out several origin theories for the naja. She acknowledged the Spanish silver horse stall model along with possible sources from Plains Indian ornament; Plains tribes traded metalwork items with Southwestern peoples in…

An abundance of shows, museums and events take place in the Southwest—in places like Santa Fe, Phoenix and Los Angeles—but collectors are encouraged to look beyond the deserts of the Southwest when hunting to inspiration for their collections. The Southeast is one of those regions worth checking out, with museums and historic destinations all around the region, from Louisiana to Georgia, Florida to the Carolinas. In Alabama, for instance, there are a number of sites and cultural venues that focus on the Mississippian cultures, including Indian Mound and Museum, Moundville Archaeological Park and the Oakville Indians Mounds Park and Museum. Several noteworthy stops in Florida include the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum, which focuses on the Seminole people, and also the James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art in St. Petersburg, which has…

JACKSON, WY An exhibition currently on view at the National Museum of Wildlife Art is the first show at the museum solely dedicated to Inuit art. On view through spring 2024, Transformations: Wildlife in Inuit Art and Culture seeks to explore Inuit history, values and beliefs efs through cultural stories and artwork, with works coming from the museum’s um’s permanent collection as well as loans from private collections. Tammi Hanawalt, curator of art at the National Museum of Wildlife Art, explains that the exhibition’s theme of transformations began with a large collection of Inuit sculptures that had been gifted to the museum. “Many of the sculptures depict transformations, such as those executed by Inuit shamans in rituals, but there is more significance behind Inuit artwork, which was introduced as a…

KALISPELL, MT DG House’s parents took the family to state parks when she was growing up, igniting a passion in her for the outdoors and an understanding of the interrelationships of all its inhabitants. As a student at the University of Dayton, Ohio, she saw a poster advertising summer work at Yellowstone National Park. She applied, was accepted and more than 40 years later, as an artist in residence at both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park, she is presenting 20 of her recent paintings in the exhibition In That Still Moment: DG House. It opens January 12, 2024, and continues through March 23 at the Hockaday Museum of Art in Kalispell, Montana. Commenting on the exhibition, she says, “You can feel what it feels like to be there” in…

LOS ANGELES, CA On December 12, Bonhams’ will offer a stunning collection of Native American objects in the Native American Art Auction that the auction notes “will celebrate the keen curatorial visions of several important private collectors, showcasing a broad range of historic Native American material culture assembled over many decades.” Among the offerings is a fascinating selection of material from the William Dana Lippman collection of 19th-century Pacific Northwest masterworks, including masks, rattles frontlets and bowls. The items include a Haida raven rattle attributed to Albert Edward Edenshaw, who lived in the 19th century. “[It is a] finely carved raven rattle painted in black, blue and red hues, with a reclining humanoid/bear connected via a lengthy tongue to a kingfisher,” the auction house explains about the piece. “The underside…

ONGOING SANTA FE, NM Silver and Stones: Collaborations in Southwest Jewelry New Mexico History Museum (505) 476-5200 www.nmhistorymuseum.org ONGOING SANTA FE, NM Here, Now and Always Museum of Indian Arts & Culture (505) 476-1269 www.indianartsandculture.org ONGOING SCOTTSDALE, AZ Dazzling Array: The Richard A. Gates Collection of Native American Jewelry Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West (480) 686-9539 www.scottsdalemuseumwest.org ONGOING SANTA FE, NM Down Home: Anthony Lovato Museum of Indian Arts & Culture (505) 476-1269 www.indianartsandculture.org ONGOING WATERVILLE, ME Painted: Our Bodies, Hearts, and Village Colby College Museum of Art (207) 859-5600 museum.colby.edu ONGOING TUCSON, AZ Enduring Legacies: The James T. Bialac Indigenous Art Collection Tucson Museum of Art (520) 624-2333 www.tucsonmuseumofart.org ONGOING SANTA FE, NM Nicholas Galanin: Interference Patterns SITE Santa Fe (505) 989-1199 sitesantafe.org NOVEMBER 20-DECEMBER 2 SANTA…

In the art of Navajo weaving, there’s now a torn space for trader, collector and Nizhoni Ranch Gallery owner Steve Getzwiller. He died August 23 at the age of 74. His passing leaves a hole in the hearts of many Navajo weavers he represented. Steve wasn’t like other traders. Instead of the weavers going to stores and trading posts to sell their pieces, Steve came to the weavers. His first time at the home of master weaver Grace Nez in the 1990s was totally unexpected, as daughter Berlinda Nez Barber, who was then maybe 15 years old, recalls. “We didn’t like anybody looking at our weavings (while on the loom). Steve came, and everybody was like, ‘Go find out what he wants,” she says, adding that he was persistent and…

SANTA FE, NM After Legacy Gallery owner Brad Richardson acquired Manitou Galleries in 2021, there was some immediate speculation about what would happen to the gallery’s jewelry department, Palace Jewelers, and the many jewelers who were represented at a key location a short distance from the Santa Fe Plaza. Two years on, it’s safe to say that jewelry is very much alive and well at Palace Jewelers, although there certainly has been some welcome changes, including a gallery redesign, new jewelry cases and a dedicated space just for jewelry on the gallery’s ground floor. Another addition is the inclusion of live auctions, the second of which will take place from November 20 to December 2. The Second Annual Palace Jewelers Auction will feature as many as 250 jewelry pieces, all…

SANTA FE, NM Here, Now and Always has come a long way in the last 26 years. The permanent exhibit featured at the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture (MIAC) first appeared in 1997, closing its doors in 2019 to be reimagined, elevating the voices not yet heard, and educating a new generation of the cultural experience. The exhibit showcases more than 600 pieces, including jewelry, both traditional and contemporary works from artists across the Southwest. “MIAC’s curatorial project team worked in collaboration with Indigenous artists, scholars and community members throughout the Southwest,” the museum notes. “The resulting exhibition highlights diverse perspectives from the 19 New Mexico pueblos, as well as Apache, Ysleta del Sur Pueblo in El Paso, Texas, the Hopi Tribe in Arizona, and the Navajo/Diné, Paiute and…

While many art forms incorporate elements like vibrant color that surely catches the eye, there’s nothing quite like the glitz and glamour of jewelry to really make you stop in your tracks. Native American jewelry features striking materials like beadwork, metalwork and high-quality gemstones. Unique cultural designs, ranging by tribe and region, also make for breathtaking statement pieces. Within this section, enjoy browsing one-of-a-kind works that are available for purchase while engaging with some of the insightful stories behind the pieces. “When I dress for a fine evening in New York or for a night of dancing at one of my favorite pow-wows, the glint of my silver earrings, like the sparkle of a diamond, makes me feel elegant and proud.”– Victoria Adams (Southern Cheyenne/Arapaho), artist DAVIDA LISTER This three-strand…

SAN FRANCISCO, CA Photographer Kirti Bassendine is no stranger to the challenges of marginalized communities. Born in Kenya and of Indian descent, she experienced racial discrimination firsthand from a very young age, expressly in the form of segregation. When she emigrated to England at 10 years old, she found herself a child of displacement, something she experienced once again when she moved to the United States in her late 20s. Her own personal struggles navigating between disparate worlds and cultures, and feeling part of neither, led her to devote her career to giving voice to the often underheard. Her first project Voices focused on other South Asian girls growing up in the Western world. Since then she has tuned her lens to other communities in projects such as Homeless Voices,…

CULLOWHEE, NC John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center will celebrate the collecting legacy of Lambert Wilson, who died in 2022. Wilson was a voracious collector of fine art and largely Native American materials, including many pieces from master artists widely known throughout the art world. Spark of the Eagle Dancer: The Collecting Legacy of Lambert Wilson opened in August and continues through December 8 in Cullowhee, North Carolina. More than 140 works will be on display, including pieces from Joshua Adams, Rowena Bradley, Goingback Chiltosky, Amanda Crowe, Shan Goshorn, Luzene Hill, Lucille Lossiah, Ramona Lossie, Joel Queen, James Bud Smith, John Julius Wilnoty, Fred Wilnoty, Eva Wolfe, Edmund Youngbird, Vivian Garner Cottrell, Troy Jackson, America Meredith, Lloyd Kiva New, Jane Osti, Karin Walkingstick, Bryan Waytula, Tammy Garcia, Ira…