Innholdsfortegnelse for April-May 2025/No. 56 i Native American Art Magazine

What do textiles, weavings, beadwork and fashion have in common? They are the star lineup for the April/May issue of Native American Art! In addition, they are art categories that we see in our daily lives. And not just see, but also wear. These are all mediums used by Native American fashion designers. They are artists. Their work is a reflection of their daily surroundings. And we can bring it home into our lives as well. This month’s buyers’ guides and features dedicated to Beadwork & Quillwork, and Textiles & Weavings are full of new artists for you to discover. When you are finished, turn to our coverage of the big fashion shows happening in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in May. Returning for its second year is SWAIA Native Fashion…

Ojibwe/Odawa designer Dehmin Osawamick Cleland is from the Wikwemikong reserve of Manitoulin Island, currently residing on Tkaronto. She started designing her own regalia at the age of 6 and continued crafting more regalia pieces for her family. Her passion for regalia making naturally evolved into a deep commitment to fashion, leading her to continue honing her skills in college studying fashion and Indigenous arts. In addition to her design practice, she teaches weekly sewing and regalia-making techniques. “I hope to nurture a sense of connection and confidence in those learning to craft their own regalia. How I work in community deeply influences my design process, where I strive to capture the same sense of pride, connection and self-expression in every piece and idea I create,” says Cleland. “As a designer…

Native American weavings are assembled in a way that is certainly the slowest and most methodical way a textile could be assembled—one thread at a time. But that speed, undertaken in long sessions in front of a loom listening to the tap-tap-tap of the weaving comb, is where the art comes in. There is beauty in this process. For the weaver, those little pieces of wool are like oil paint to a painter. Each one is important because each one helps establish the design and story that the artist hopes to tell. As we turn our attention to weavings in this section, remember that every string is vital to the artist and their voice as a weaver.…

Influential weaver Martha Gorman Schultz (Navajo (Diné)) spent a great deal of her life in front of a loom creating weavings, many of them grand in scale and complex in design. She was watched by her children and grandchildren, who followed her into weaving and then greatness. Schultz, the award-winning matriarch of a large weaving family, died February 21. She was 93. Schultz, who had been in failing health, was still active at her loom until recently. She last participated at the Santa Fe Indian Market in 2018 and the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market in 2021. Weaving was her calling, says her daughter, Lola Cody. “She was always weaving, even when we were growing up,” Cody adds. “She wove to support us, and then we all started…

Schedule of Events: Wednesday, May 7 VIP/Donor/Member Preview, 6-9 p.m. Eldorado Hotel, 309 W. San Francisco Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501 Invite only Thursday, May 8 Industry Day (with panel discussions and trunk shows), 9 a.m.-3 p.m. La Fonda on the Plaza (La Terraza Ballroom and patio) and downtown retail locations 100 E. San Francisco Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501 Tickets available at www.swaia.org Friday, May 9 SWAIA Native Fashion Show, 6-7 p.m. Santa Fe Community Convention Center 201 W. Marcy Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501 Tickets available at www.swaia.org Saturday, May 10 SWAIA Native Fashion Shows, 2-3 p.m. and 5-6 p.m. Santa Fe Community Convention Center 201 W. Marcy Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501 Tickets available at www.swaia.org Sunday, May 11 SWAIA Native Fashion Shows, 2-3 p.m. and 5-6…

SANTA FE, NM Native Elements, an Indigenous festival and market that will replace the long-standing Native Treasures, will take place over Memorial Day Weekend from May 21 through May 26 at the Santa Fe Botanical Gardens, in the Santa Fe Plaza, at local galleries, and the Santa Fe Community Convention Center. The city-wide celebration will mark the start of the 2025 Santa Fe summer art season. “We created Native Elements because we know there is a need for the city and the Indigenous artists who have participated in this event to have an event such as this at this time of the year,” says David Young, executive director of the Santa Fe Botanical Gardens. “As soon as we heard that the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture (MIAC) was no…

Art has many purposes. Our readers often tell us why they collect Native American art: beauty, history, culture, the mastery of a medium, narrative, color, design. The list is as varied as our readers. But art can also be about pushing boundaries, inciting an emotional response from the viewer and shining a light on the horrors of the past. I’m typing this just days after attending the 2025 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market (our full report will be in the June/July issue), and I’m happy to report that many artists are willing to tackle these darker, more transgressive and more complex themes in their work. I saw it in pottery, paintings, weavings, beadwork and nearly every other classification at the market. These were pieces that featured imagery related…

1. Winfield Trading Winfield Trading is showing this beautiful cowrie shell Heishi bead necklace with hand-carved fetishes. The necklace contains 42 birds, 20 bears and five foxes made using natural turquoise, spiny oyster, abalone and jet. This 1940s piece was created by “Old Man” Leekya Deyuse (1889-1966), a renowned Zuni fetish carver. His extraordinary skill, creativity and dedication to his craft established him as a master carver and helped to popularize Zuni fetish carvings beyond the boundaries of the pueblo. Leekya’s energy and creativity resulted in animal fetishes ranging from simple carved turquoise leaves to fat bears and graceful birds to elegantly carved figurals. 1830 State Hwy 602, Gallup, NM 87301 • www.winfieldtradingco.com (505) 778-5544 (by appointment only) 2. Adobe Gallery Now available at Adobe Gallery is this Acoma Pueblo…

In nearly every issue of Native American Art magazine we turn to a specific medium within the world of Native American art. This is a great opportunity to pass on knowledge to our readers about a form of art, and it also offers us a chance to highlight artists of all types who work with these materials. The Beadwork & Quillwork section is frequently a reader favorite for a variety of reasons, but one aspect of this medium that gets praised over and over again is the color. Nowhere in the art world are you going to find colors like these, and this year’s section proves it. Of course, there is more to it than color—form and design, detail, imagination and playfulness also come to mind—but there is always more.…

INDIANAPOLIS, IN In 2022, Canada’s MacKenzie Art Gallery unveiled Radical Stitch, the largest exhibition of contemporary Indigenous bead art ever presented in North America. The exhibition has proven to be a smash hit that is now on its sixth stop at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art—its only stop in the United States. The exhibition will highlight bead works from some of the top artists working today, including many who use a “radical” and contemporary look that loops in everything from “pop culture references, current issues such as food sovereignty, Indigenous Futurism, and artworks that re-envision the past, present and future through a sometimes sci-fi lens,” the museum notes. “The artworks in this exhibition hold a visual potency that’s impossible to capture in a photograph,” says Laura…

FLAGSTAFF, AZ A new exhibition at the Museum of Northern Arizona (MNA) highlights acquisitions from the past decade that reflect shifts in art, culture and science across the Colorado Plateau. Collecting in a Changing World, on view through January 4, 2026, features roughly 70 artworks including paintings, pottery, prints and posters, weavings, carvings, beadwork and clothing. The earliest examples are ancient painted potsherds from 1,000 to 400 years ago that will accompany contemporary Acoma, Laguna and Hopi-Tewa pottery to show how ancient designs have inspired new creations. The most recently created pieces in the show include a frog katsina doll carved in 2024 by Cimmaron Grover (Hopi), and a beaded pin titled Yoda Yazhi (Baby Yoda) by Navajo artist Amanda Bahe from 2022. “Most contemporary, in my view, aesthetically speaking,…

SANTA FE, NM Native Fashion Week Santa Fe presents a unique opportunity to see a who’s-who lineup of Indigenous designers come together in the City Different during the week of May 8 to 11. Coming from the mind of curator, art historian and Indigenous fashion expert Amber-Dawn Bear Robe, the event celebrates the artistry and innovation of Indigenous designers and artists through a series of runway shows, symposia, trunk shows, pop-ups and more. It’s the epitome of beauty and luxury, seen through a Native lens. Bear Robe has been working actively on this project for about a year, but her vision for the monumental event has been brewing for years now. “[I want to] give a larger platform for Indigenous designers because there’s never enough time, space or place,” she…

Bead artist Marvin Gabaldon (Acoma/Taos/Ohkay Owingeh) has worked with beads for more than 40 years. He prides himself on his unique designs. “I am a pueblo bead artist, so my designs are a bit different from other bead artists. I draw inspiration from pueblo culture, but I also love architecture and landscapes,” Gabaldon says. “Many of the pueblo designs and Native designs and motifs that I bead are beaded into my interpretation of them. I bead using four different techniques: applique, loom, peyote stitch and lazy stitch. I also know how to brick stitch but I rarely do that.” The artist, who has shown his work all around the country, says that his work is often meditative and spiritual. “I pray before I start beading every day and as I…

ONGOING HANOVER, NH Cara Romero: Panûpünüwügai (Living Light) Hood Museum of Art (603) 646-2808 hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu ONGOING FLAGSTAFF, AZ Collecting in a Changing World Museum of Northern Arizona (928) 774-5213 www.musnaz.org ONGOING DENVER, CO Northwest Coast and Alaska Native Art Galleries Denver Art Museum (720) 865-5000 www.denverartmuseum.org/en THROUGH APRIL 5 SANTA FE, NM Painted by Hand: The Textiles of Patricia Michaels Museum of Indian Arts & Culture (505) 476-1269 www.indianartsandculture.org APRIL 10-17 SCOTTSDALE, AZ Smoke: Screen - Daniel Begay New Works in Clay King Galleries (480) 481-0187 www.kinggalleries.com APRIL 11-12 SCOTTSDALE, AZ Scottsdale Art Auction Scottsdale Art Auction (480) 945-0225 www.scottsdaleartauction.com THROUGH APRIL 12 SANTA FE, NM Pablita’s Wardrobe: Family + Fashion Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian (505) 982-4636 www.wheelwright.org APRIL 24 LOS ANGELES, CA Modern Native American Art &…

Quillwork and beadwork artist Anthony Hernandez, from the Shoshone Paiute Duck Valley Indian Reservation, Paddy Cap Band (Northern Paiute), has always been drawn to the arts. Like so many before him, he began by drawing when he was a child—exercising his creative intuition. But when he was introduced to beadwork by his aunt when he was 13 years old, emboldened to make a traditional dance ensemble for himself, his journey took him in an entirely new direction. “I believe I’ve always been an artist,” shares Hernandez. “I always knew I wanted to pursue some kind of career in art because that’s just what felt right to me. In high school, I wanted to go to college for fashion design, but I didn’t take that route. When I learned to quill,…

Every category of Native American art requires an attention to detail, an exactness in design and a delicate hand, and yet each category requires its own unique discipline and set of skills. For Native American artists who work in beads and quills, these materials evoke a mastery of form and meticulous detail. The materials are either tiny or fragile, and sometimes both. They are not easy to work with and errors have a ripple effect that can disrupt a whole work. And yet these artists can soar over these challenges with pieces that speak to the past, present and future. Yonavea Hawkins (Caddo Nation) Caddo bead artist Yonavea Hawkins recently completed two bracelets, Sunset Sky and Midnight Stars. “My creative use of color is inspired by seeing how the bead…

SANTA FE, NM In 2024, SWAIA, the organization that puts on the iconic Santa Fe Indian Market, held its inaugural SWAIA Native Fashion Week. After a series of runway events, trunk shows, parties and educational panels, the event closed and organizers knew instantly the event would return. “The overwhelming interest in the shows and the diversity of artists and designers that were present made for a robust experience,” says Jamie Schulze (Northern Cheyenne/Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate), the executive director of SWAIA. “We knew then our trajectory was going up, and it continues going up into 2025.” Schulze continues: “We were meant to do this show. If you look at our traditional regalia, which serves as the basis for this creativity, it was always in our culture. So, this show is about…

Schedule of Events: Wednesday, May 8 » Fashion Cocktail Hour 5-7 p.m., El Rey Court Friday, May 9 » Fashion Symposium, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Railyard Market Pavillion » Fashion Boutique Pop-Ups 10 a.m.-10 p.m., Railyard Market Pavilion » Freeze Modeling 6-8 p.m., Railyard Market Pavillion » Public Kick-Off Party Railyard Market Pavillion / As Above So Below Saturday, May 10 » Runway Shows, 3-8 p.m., Railyard Plaza » Trunk Shows in surrounding Railyard shops, galleries and public spaces » Fashion Night As Above So Below and Nuckolls Sunday, May 11 » Runway Shows 3-8 p.m., Railyard Plaza » Trunk Shows in surrounding Railyard shops, galleries and public spaces » Fashion Closing Party DJ Rashan at As Above So Below For a detailed schedule and tickets, visit www.nativefashionweeksantafe.com. Additional Designers LESLEY HAMPTON Brand/Label:…

CINCINNATI, OH Holding its first live auction of Native American art, Bonhams’ Modern Native American Art & Jewelry sale boasts impressive options for collectors, offering approximately 300 lots. Ingmārs I. Lindbergs, Bonhams director of Native American art, notes that the sale will blend a multidisciplinary selection of artwork by 20 th- and 21 st-century Indigenous North American artists and jewelers, with an important single-owner collection of fine Native American baskets and historic pueblo pottery. “Included in the sale are fresh-to-market original works by Oscar Howe, Fred Kabotie, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Rick Bartow, Emmi Whitehorse, Rufus Moody and Beau Dick,” explains Lindbergs. “Prints and multiples include a fresh T.C. Cannon Memorial Woodblock Suite and numerous works by Fritz Scholder.” The sale will include a Scholder (Luiseño) acrylic on canvas, American Portrait…