Innholdsfortegnelse for October-November 2024/No. 53 i Native American Art Magazine

Welcome to the October/November issue of Native American Art! This issue marks our publishing anniversary: four years ago, during the October issue, Adolfo Castillo and I purchased 25-year-old International Artist Publishing and its five art titles—Western Art Collector, Native American Art, American Fine Art Magazine, American Art Collector and our flagship title International Artist. Adolfo and I had known and worked with Vincent Miller, the founder and publisher, for 25-plus years prior, which prepared us for the exciting journey. Many things have grown over the past four years as we have focused on the importance of bringing you everything you need to help you collect art. To complement our magazines, we added a podcast, the American Art Collective, which debuted on March 30, 2021, with its first episode hosted by…

Yolonda Skelton (Sug-iit-looks) is a visionary fashion designer from the Gitxsan First Nations, whose work intertwines her cultural heritage with contemporary aesthetics. Skelton’s deep connection to her roots—as taught to her by her late maternal grandmother, Lily Jackson—is evident in all of her creations. Her innate ability to fuse the old and the new has made her a trailblazer in the industry, captivating audiences worldwide with her unique style. The artist’s designs tell stories of her ancestors, invoking a sense of pride and reverence for the Gitxsan culture. Through her work, she aims to honor the traditions passed down through generations while embracing the ever-evolving world of fashion. With a commitment to sustainability, Skelton utilizes eco-conscious materials, ensuring that her designs are as environmentally friendly as they are visually striking.…

Aaron Fredericks and Shawn Deel are two especially talented Hopi katsina carvers who, we believe, are currently creating a new hybrid form of katsina art that we refer to as “traditional/realism.” We think that they are breaking new ground independently, yet their work converges around a common theme: katsinam which have a traditional form with many added details which suggest ultra-realistic characteristics. A deeper appreciation of this new style is accomplished when put into its historical context. The following is a brief review of Hopi katsina styles dating from the 1880s to the present. These are: Category 1: 1880-1910: Early Traditional. These are examples with very minimal carving and simple paint. This is a minimalist form. Category 2: 1910-Late 1920s: Late Traditional. By the 1920s many katsinam had become rather…

1 Donald Lomawunu Sockyma (Hopi) Taught by his father, Bennett Sockyma, Donald Lomawunu Sockyma first started with flat dolls at a young age and worked his way up to full figures. Today, he’s one of those sought-after artists whose works sell out before a market is over. Many of his pieces have realistically carved feathers, cactus arms with spines and other tiny details that bring his katsina figures to life. The artist is from the Sun Clan from the Village of Kykotsmovi on the Hopi Reservation in Northeastern Arizona. dsockyma.artspan.com 2 Sheldon Harvey (Navajo (Diné)) Collected at the highest level, with works in many major collections, Sheldon Harvey has become an influential force in the art world. Known for his paintings and sculpture work, Harvey is also known as workhorse…

Native American art is the original American art. This is not a new development, but it’s one that has had huge ramifications on the art world in recent years. Nowhere is it more obvious than at the museum level, where curators from coast to coast have been reconciling their museums’ permanent collections with the history of art in this country. We’re seeing it with artists of color, women and other minority groups who were underrepresented within major collections. We’re also seeing that with Native American artwork. Museums are listening to the call for more complete curation and inclusion. They are adding Native American art, sometimes huge collections all at once; they are hosting traveling exhibitions about Indigenous art, and sometimes presenting their own exhibitions; they are hiring Native American curators;…

In addition to exhibitions showcasing contemporary Indigenous arts in the coming year, museums across the country will delve into Native history in America. The Pueblo Revolt of 1680, led by Po’pay, a Tewa religious leader from Ohkay Owingeh, features in several exhibitions. The successful revolt against Spanish colonizers allowed the pueblos of New Mexico to live free until the Spanish returned with a vengeance in 1692. Lithographs of the revolt by Cochiti Pueblo artist Diego Romero will be included in the exhibition Storytellers: Narrative Art of the West at the Briscoe Western Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas, October 4 through January 19, 2025. A colorful new mural by Leah Povi Marie Lewis (Laguna/Taos/Zuni/Hopi/Diné) and Votan Henriquez (Maya/Nahua), Poeh Ah Ka Wohatsey: The Emergence Teachings of Resilience, celebrating Po’pay and…

The High Desert Museum, nestled in the picturesque landscape of Bend, Oregon, is dedicated to celebrating the unique heritage and natural wonders of the High Desert. Known for its immersive and thought-provoking exhibitions and wildlife encounters, the museum invites visitors to explore the rich tapestry of species and cultures that define the region. Currently on exhibit is Sensing Sasquatch, offering a unique look at Sasquatch from an Indigenous lens. Highlighting the longstanding stories and depictions of this non-human other by Native peoples of the Plateau, the exhibit features work by five Indigenous artists: Phillip Cash Cash (Nez Perce/Cayuse), HollyAnna CougarTracks DeCoteau Littlebull (Yakama/Nez Perce/Cayuse/Cree), Charlene “Tillie” Moody (Warm Springs), Frank Buffalo Hyde (Nez Perce/Onondaga) and Rocky LaRock (Salish). Looking ahead, the museum is excited to open the exhibition Rick Bartow:…

The Wheelwright Museum—named for Mary Cabot Wheelwright (1878–1958), one of the two founders—is recognized as a historic landmark and has been open to the public since 1937. The building of modernist design takes the form of a Navajo hooghan, which reflects the importance of Navajo esteemed singer Hastiin Klah (1867-1937) to the founding of the museum. The historic building is the work of architect and furniture designer William Penhallow Henderson (1877-1943). On the museum’s landscaped grounds, you will find works by sculptors Melanie Yazzie (Navajo) and Allan Houser (1914-1994, Chiracahua Apache), and the plaza offers beautiful views. Visitors enter the historic museum building through the door facing east. Inside the museum are permanent and temporary exhibitions of both contemporary and historic Native American art. The Wheelwright’s collection includes around 11,000…

The Zuni Fetish Museum, located inside Grey Dog Trading, is the first museum dedicated to a single Native American art form—Zuni fetish carving. It was founded to explain, preserve and promote the art of Zuni fetishes, a category that is widely copied and faked. All pueblo people carve and use fetishes, but the Zuni became famous for selling them in the middle of the last century when the carvings of Leekya Deyuse became collectible. The museum’s new exhibit features the carvings of Deyuse’s great-nephew, award-winning artist Ricky Laahty. “His carvings are expertly crafted with infinite respect for the stone, often embellished only with his inlaid shell eyes,” says museum director Yvonne Stokes. “No bells, no whistles, no elaborate decoration. His animals—mostly frogs—exhibit whimsical lifelike personalities without an overload of detail.…

Curated by Apsáalooke artist Wendy Red Star, Native America: In Translation features nine Native American and First Nations artists working in photography and other lens-based media. On view at the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin, Texas, through January 5, 2025, the 60 artworks on display offer contemporary Indigenous perspectives on identity, memory, tradition and the history of photography. Hannah Klemm, the managing curator of the Blanton’s presentation of the touring exhibition, says, “Each artist in the exhibition has an individual approach to these themes, artists are using photography, installation, sculpture and modes of performance to reverse the common record of the vanishing or erasure of Native people. Instead the artists in this show counter with narratives of reclamation, proclaiming an indigenous past, present, and…

While Native Plains artists once used items like rocks and animal hide for recording and painting, the modern era ushered in the practice of using paper. By 1860, “…painting or drawing on paper was more common,” says Dr. Eric D. Singleton, curator of Native American art and ethnology at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. “The first known example from the Great Plains of painting on paper [is thought to have] occurred in 1834, when Mandan warrior Mató-Tópe (Four Bears) was given paper by Karl Bodmer to depict his own war narrative.” Eventually, Native American artists took to repurposing ledger or accounting books from U.S. soldiers and traders for drawing and painting. This resulted in what we know today as “ledger” art—a subgenre that has reached popularity and great…

CHEROKEE, NC “Kananesgi” is the Cherokee word for spider, representing creativity and dexterity. Named for this symbolic word, the annual Kananesgi Art Market & Fashion Show is a single-day, jam-packed event celebrating Indigenous artists and designers expressing their Cherokee identities. It all begins on Saturday, November 9, with the Kananesgi Art Market from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., in which more than 30 Native American artists and makers will be present to chat with collectors and sell their works. Also happening from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. is the Art Show, a judged art competition highlighting the best Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) artists and crafters. This year’s market theme is “Feminine Roots,” inspired by the strength of Cherokee women and the concept of “Blood Memory.” “We really wanted…

BEST OF SHOW/CLASS VII: DIVERSE ARTS Dan Vallo (Acoma Pueblo), Pueblo Revolt Ensemble, rendition of a set of weapons used by many pueblo warriors during the time of the Pueblo Revolt: obsidian flint knapped dagger, handle made of yucca cord encased in clear resin, juniper bow backed with over 150 wild turkey feathers, handmade twisted bow string, rawhide quiver and red cedar wood arrows, 66 x 14 x 5” CLASS II: POTTERY Garrett Maho (Hopi), Gentle Rain, hand-built pot: traditional clay, paints and paintbrushes, stones used to polish, outdoor traditional wood and dung firing, all natural pigments, 11” diameter CLASS IV: WOODEN PUEBLO FIGURATIVE CARVING & SCULPTURE Arthur Holmes Jr. (Hopi), Chasing Star – Na-ngashu Katsina, carved from roots of a cottonwood tree, oil paint, 16½ x 5½” CLASS I: JEWELRY Sarah Aragon…

Two weeks before Santa Fe Indian Market I broke my ankle. Just snap! and that was that. It was a clean break. My doctor was impressed: “This is a golden break. Everything is where it should be. No pins. No plates. No surgery. Not even a cast.” I just had to wear this big boot that looked like it came off a plastic version of Robocop. The first thing I asked my doctor was about walking in Santa Fe. He didn’t say yes, but he didn’t say no either. For market, I borrowed a knee scooter that would allow me to take pressure off my healing ankle. Maybe you saw me scootin’ around the plaza, dodging Santa Fe’s potholes and maneuvering carefully on uneven sidewalks. If anyone asked what happened…

1. Home & Away Now available at Home & Away Gallery in Wilton, Maine, is this Depression-era necklace. “This is a Kewa (Santo Domingo Pueblo) Depression-era thunderbird necklace, from the second quarter of the 20th century. The artist is unidentified,” gallery owner David Shultz notes about the piece. “These necklaces were made from available resources during a time of scarcity. Materials included plastic from car battery cases [and] combs, among others. The necklaces not only serve as a testament to the resilience and creativity of the Santo Domingo people but also as a reminder of the challenges they faced during the Great Depression.” This necklace, as well as many others, are available on the gallery’s website. To see the work in person in Maine, call for an appointment. Wilton, ME…

Providing the public with a variety of inspiring life-size sculptural works now on view at the Santa Fe Botanical Garden is the exhibition Elements of the Earth: Contemporary Native Sculpture. Guests to the garden will find a total of 15 impressive sculptures in different mediums, created by prominent Native American artists and displayed among the unique flora and fauna of the botanical garden. “The organic quality and materials of this work makes it a perfect fit for the Botanical Garden, which is located on the ancestral homeland of the Tewa people and where we highlight the use of indigenous plants in the landscape,” says David A. Young, executive director of the SFBG, who co-curated the exhibition with creative contributor Joshua Rose. When looking at the contemporary Indigenous sculpture being created…

1 Greyshoes (Upton Ethelbah Jr.) (Santa Clara Pueblo/White Mountain Apache) Known for his strong forms and simplified figures, Greyshoes works in both stone and bronze, although many recent pieces have been made for bronze. For his metal works, Greyshoes doesn’t work in clay, but rather he carves the work in stone. From there, a mold is made and then the normal bronze casting process is started. The award-winning artist is a regular at many of the popular shows in the country, where he has won top awards and ribbons.  www.greyshoes.com 2 Sean Rising Sun Flanagan (Taos Pueblo) Intricate silhouettes, detailed cutouts and exceptional animal forms are some of the hallmarks of the work of Sean Rising Sun Flanagan. “I draw inspiration from the traditional images of my Native roots which…

Visitors entering the European and American wing of the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, are first greeted by a poem from Layli Long Soldier (Ogalala Lakota). “I wanted the first thing that confronts you in this gallery to be the words of Native people themselves, especially because the prior installation didn’t have a lot of interpretive text—I love having it on the door because it kind of levels at you,” fari nzinga, curator of African and Native American Collections at the Speed Art Museum, says of the choice placement. “[The prior Native galleries] had some extended labels, but lent itself to this idea that Native people don’t have written languages, don’t have written culture, don’t participate in literature or literary pursuits, let alone modern and contemporary modes of art…

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art takes its name from a nearby natural spring and the bridge construction incorporated in the building, designed by worldren-owned architect Moshe Safdie. The mission of the museum is to welcome all in celebrating the American spirit in a setting that unites the power of art with the beauty of nature. Founded by philanthropist and arts patron Alice Walton, Crystal Bridges is a public nonprofit charitable organization. Challenging your perceptions of the American West, Crystal Bridges opens the new exhibition, Knowing the West—the first major traveling exhibition to embrace the American West as more inclusive, complex and reflective of the diverse peoples who contributed to art and life there. “Americans know the West in many ways, from Hollywood images to personal experience, with every perspective…

The Museum of Indian Arts & Culture is a premier repository of Native American art and material culture, telling the stories of the people of the Southwest through art from prehistory through the contemporary. The museum serves a diverse, multicultural audience through changing exhibitions, public lectures, field trips, artist residencies and other educational programs. The museum’s overarching mission is to provide cross-cultural education to the many visitors to Santa Fe who take part in its programs and to New Mexican residents throughout the state. It is especially important that MIAC serve Native American communities in the state, and throughout the Southwest, whose contemporary and ancestral cultures are represented in the museum’s collections. Major Upcoming Exhibitions Makowa: The Worlds Above Us Check museum website for updated dates. 2025 Native Treasure Exhibition…

Located in Knoxville, Tennessee, the McClung Museum provides free admission, and functions as a center for research, education and community involvement. The museum houses important collections in archaeology, malacology, paleoethnobotany and arts and culture. Its exhibitions cover Tennessee’s geological, historical and artistic heritage, while also featuring diverse cultures from around the world. Homelands: Connecting to Mounds through Native Art will debut in January 2025 at the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture. This exhibition, co-curated by representatives from four Native nations with ancestral ties to Knox County—Cherokee Nation, Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and Muscogee (Creek) Nation—invites visitors to explore Native American viewpoints on placemaking, cultural continuity and Indigenous lifeways, and centers around the profound significance of mounds, including the mound on the University of…

On view at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art through January 27, 2025, Knowing the West: Visual Legacies of the American West was curated to explore and expand how people see the American West. It aims to tell a more inclusive story by showcasing the diverse groups who shaped the art and life of the West. Co-curated by Mindy Besaw, Crystal Bridges’ curator of American art and director of research, fellowships and university partnerships, and Jami Powell (Osage), associate director for curatorial affairs and curator of Indigenous art at New Hampshire’s Hood Museum of Art, the exhibition presents more than 120 historic works by Native and non-Native American artists, including textiles, baskets, paintings, pottery, sculpture, beadwork, saddles and prints, spanning the early 19th century to today. Powell says, “Throughout the…

Artist Joe Feddersen, renowned multidisciplinary artist, is a member of the Colville Confederated Tribes (Okanagan and Arrow Lakes), and currently lives and works in Omak, Washington. While his first career is in printmaking, Feddersen has spent the last four decades creating works in a variety of additional media, including painting, basketry, glass sculpture, photography and computer-generated imagery. The artist’s deep connection to his culture and landscape has culminated into an impressive retrospective of works currently on view and organized by the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. Titled Earth, Water, Sky, the exhibition includes 120 pieces that highlight the “breadth of Joe Feddersen’s oeuvre,” says the museum’s special projects curator, Rachel Allen. “From his early days on the Colville Reservation, a sovereign territory that overlaps the border between the United…

Hosted at the Heard Museum in Phoenix and opening in early October is Bloodline, a survey exhibition featuring photography by Canadian-based artist, Meryl McMaster. Her family lineage and culture—Plains Cree (nêhiyaw Métis) with a mix of British and Dutch ancestry—is of great importance to her work. Highlighting 48 photographs across six bodies of work, the exhibition evokes themes of “memory, containment, erasure and self-determination,” says the museum. “Both my parents and grandparents were very involved in family and history, so I grew up with stories being told about family and have had access to various family materials…,” the artist explains. “In many of my works, I look to the past to form a fuller understanding of the present, hoping to create moments of introspection and contemplation of where we are…

Is a proud Sponsor of the Cherokee Art Market. Subscribe today to get the best Navtive American art magazine in the country, and the only bi-monthly magazine that highlights the top artists, galleries, museums, fairs and auctions throughout the art market. Flipping through the pages of Native American Art magazine you’ll find unique and engaging content including: » Previews of all the biggest markets, shows and sales. » Special genre sections highlighting unique categories of art such as pottery, textiles and jewelry. » The leading coverage related to Santa Fe Indian Market, the Heard Museum Indian Guild Fair & Market and other top events. » Insight from renowned experts, authors and curators. Find out what all the artists, dealers and collectors are talking raving about by subscribing to Native American…

ONGOING WASHINGTON, D.C. Sublime Light: Tapestry Art of DY Begay National Museum of the American Indian (202) 633-1000 www.americanindian.si.edu ONGOING AUSTIN, TX Native America: In Translation The Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin  (512) 471-5482  www.blantonmuseum.org ONGOING SANTA FE, NM Pablita’s Wardrobe: Family + Fashion Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian (505) 982-4636 www.wheelwright.org ONGOING OKLAHOMA CITY, OK Cheyenne Ledger Art from Fort Marion National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum (405) 478-2250 www.nationalcowboymuseum.org ONGOING SPOKANE, WA Joe Feddersen: Earth, Water, Sky Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (509) 456-3931 www.northwestmuseum.org ONGOING BETONVILLE, AR Knowing the West: Visual Legacies of the American West Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (479) 418-5700 www.crystalbridges.org OCTOBER 12-13 CATOOSA, OK Cherokee Art Market Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa (877) 779-6977 cherokeeartmarket.com ONGOING…

1 Jared DeCelles (Fort Belknap Indian Community of Montana) Like many sculptors, Jared DeCelles works in stone and bronze, but it is his stonework that soars to exciting new heights. He frequently shows with his father, renowned sculptor Jon DeCelles, and between the two of them offer a stunning array of abstract and representational work. somethingweirdstudios 2 Cliff Fragua (Jemez Pueblo) Known around art circles as one of the most respected and acclaimed sculptors in the country, Cliff Fragua has won a long list of awards at markets and events from coast to coast. Many of his larger pieces are in marble, but he also works in other stones with a variety of colors and textures. He lives and works from the Jemez Pueblo, where his studio, Singing Stone Studio,…

Dedicated to available-to-purchase pieces in the Native American carvings and sculpture genre, this section offers a little bit of everything, from the keen-eyed collector who’s inspired by history and tradition, to those looking for a more contemporary look and feel. While browsing these many fine examples—katsina dolls, hand-built ceramic figures and stone-carved art objects—we hope you find compelling information on the artistic process and unique cultural references, as well as uplifting visual elements that simply make your heart leap. WINFIELD TRADING COMPANY Offered at Winfield Trading Company in Gallup, New Mexico, is this one-of-a-kind Zuni Corn Maiden shell carving by Vickie Quandelacy. Depending on the style of the carving, the Corn Maiden can symbolize abundance, fertility, life giver and wise elder. The Corn Maiden is revered in the Zuni culture.…

In a sunlit hallway of the Museum of Contemporary Native Art (MoCNA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, there is a new mural, a collaboration between Swedish artist Stina Folkebrant and David Naranjo (Santa Clara Pueblo). Folkebrant had collaborated with the Sámi artist Tomas Colbengtson on the installation Mygration which is on view through March 2, 2025, at MoCNA, which is run by the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA). Folkebrant was asked by MoCNA’s chief curator, Dr. Manuela Well-Off-Man, to create a mural for the museum in collaboration with a local Native artist of her choosing. She returned to her studio in Stockholm and began to search for Native American artists on the Web. She discovered Naranjo’s black-and-white linear designs from pueblo pottery on Instagram. “I thought that this geometrical…

Experience the Heard Museum, a cultural icon in downtown Phoenix, and a vibrant world where Indigenous art tells powerful stories. Since 1929, the Heard has been a place where visitors connect with the creativity of Indigenous artists. As one of the world’s leading museums dedicated to American Indian art, the museum offers an experience beyond the ordinary, drawing more than 145,000 visitors annually. Exhibitions, like Substance of Stars and Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Stories, highlight the resilience and contributions of Native communities while sparking meaningful conversations. The museum proudly stewards a permanent collection of more than 46,000 works of Indigenous creation, complemented by 434,000 materials in the musem’s renowned library and archives. “At the Heard, commitment to authenticity is at the heart of everything do,” says museum…

Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West is a premier cultural institution in Old Town Scottsdale dedicated to showcasing art and history spanning 19 states in the American West, Western Canada and Mexico. Within months of opening in January 2015, the museum qualified as a Smithsonian affiliate. The Western Spirit building consists of a two-story layout, showcasing collections that feature a diverse array of Western art and artifacts, ranging from classic and contemporary paintings to sculptures, pottery, photography and historical objects. The museum’s exhibitions and programs aim to educate and inspire visitors by exploring the West’s rich and multifaceted heritage. Notable exhibitions include Dazzling Array, which features the Richard A. Gates collection of necklaces, cuffs and more made by artists such as Larry Golsh, Charles Loloma and Jesse Monongya, to…

Artist DY Begay is a fourth-generation Navajo weaver known for tapestry art that is both highly contemporary and deeply rooted in her traditional Diné upbringing in Tsélaní on the Navajo Nation reservation. More than three decades of the artist’s innovative work is represented in the exhibition Sublime Light: Tapestry Art of DY Begay, on view at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) September 20 through July 13, 2025. “DY Begay has rethought the possibilities of Diné weaving,” says NMAI curator Cécile R. Ganteaume. “She creates on a traditional Diné upright loom, works with Diné traditional materials, notably churro wool, which she hand spins and hand dyes herself using mostly natural dyes, and in the widely practiced Diné weaving technique known as plain weave. However, her weavings (i.e., her…

An exhibition now on view at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian takes a unique approach to celebrating the artistry of Pablita Velarde, daughter Helen Hardin and granddaughter of Margarete Bagshaw. Each artist carved a path for themselves as some of the most important painters of their respective generations, cementing their statuses as juggernauts of the Indigenous art world. However, this new exhibition at the Wheelwright focuses not on the paintings and pottery of this prolific family of artists, but instead, on the art they wore. “Pablita’s Wardrobe: Family + Fashion was born through conversation with Helen Tindel, Velarde’s great-granddaughter who has inherited whole outfits worn by Pablita Velarde, Helen Hardin and Margarete Bagshaw, as well as a number of their drawings and personal effects,” explains Henrietta Lidchi, Wheelwright…