Innholdsfortegnelse for June-July 2025/No. 57 i Native American Art Magazine

Welcome to the June/July issue of Native American Art magazine! Adolfo has just returned from SWAIA Native Fashion Week, which has swiftly grown into the destination for the best Native American fashion designers across the nation. I am sure you have seen our social media posts as he reported from the show. We hope you enjoy the imagery! In this issue we celebrate the launch of our Culture Guide destination features, which will allow us to spotlight key cities across the United States with rich Indigenous heritage. Our sister title, Western Art Collector, has a very popular monthly guide called State of the Art, which offers travel suggestions for art lovers and collectors. We felt our collectors wanted (and needed) a spotlight destination guide for Native American Art and it…

1. Buffalo Barry’s Indian Art Peter Shelton Jr. (Hopi name Hoyesva) was a renowned painter and katsina artist. He was born in 1920 and passed in 1992. He and his brother, Henry Shelton, were important figures in the history of Hopi art. As noted by Greg Schaaf in his book on Hopi katsina carvers, “In the 1970s Peter created a series of finely crafted katsina dolls. He contributed to the development of a more realistic style with greater detail…” His paintings and katsinam are in many museums including the Smithsonian, the Heard Museum and Museum of Northern Arizona. This Hemis katsina is quite large nearly 16-inches tall and 5-inches wide. It is signed on the bottom of the left foot with the word “Hoyesva,” which means quite poetically “wherever the…

“Chris, what sounds good for dinner?” Silence. It was February 2019. Chris Youngblood and Jennifer Tafoya were staying with us before their two-person show at King Galleries in Scottsdale, Arizona. I turned toward him. He was deep in thought, eyes fixed on the dining room table. Three Santa Clara Pueblo water jars sat in front of him. Each one outstanding. Together, breathtaking. The first, from the 1920s, was made by his great-great-grandmother, Sara Fina Tafoya—the matriarch. Broad and bold, it was a piece that defined an era. Next to it, a 17-inch double-shouldered jar by his great-grandmother, Margaret Tafoya—flawless, iconic. And beside that, a towering piece, sharply carved to perfection by his uncle, Nathan Youngblood. “Chris?” He blinked. “I’m sitting here in front of 100 years of some of my…

SANTA FE, NM Now on view at Adobe Gallery, at the base of historic Canyon Road in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is a collection of work by Tony Da, the San Ildefonso Pueblo potter whose work is treasured at the highest levels of Native American pottery. Da—the grandson of Maria and Julian Martinez, and the son of Popovi Da—was a pivotal figure in the world of pueblo pottery. He took advancements made by his famous family members and improved on them in the second half of the 20th century. His pottery included the famous blackware style made famous by Maria Martinez and also a sgraffito style popularized by Popovi. Sadly, Da’s life was cut short after a motorcycle accident in 1982. He was only 42 years old. Due to the…

First Salmon Celebration This spring and summer ceremony is observed by many tribes. According to tradition, the first salmon caught each season is welcomed as a sacred guest, and treated with respect. Contact individual tribes for information about dates and locations. A directory of tribes can be found at goia.wa.gov. Spirit of Indigenous People Festival This June festival brings together American Indians, Alaska Natives and First Nations People for a powwow, Native art market, music and dance performances, and a cultural celebration. This year’s event will take place June 7 at the Seattle Center. www.seattlecenter.com Seafair Indian Days Powwow Featuring hundreds of dancers in full regalia, dozens of drum groups and thousands of spectators, the Seafair Indian Days Powwow celebrates the richness of Native American cultures. The event is held…

SANTA FE, NM With the planning stages starting nearly 10 years ago, the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture finally brings to light the special exhibition Makowa: The Worlds Above Us. Interrupted by the pandemic, the exhibition took a backseat, but resumed planning saw an expansion of the project to include Native American artworks depicting the day and night skies, as well as other aspects of contemporary, historic and ancient skywatching in the Southwest. “This exhibit shows the relationships and connections between the sky and the earth and how humans have observed them,” says Marlon Magdalena (Jemez Pueblo), co-curator, noting that there are two entrances to the exhibit. “One entrance begins with the night sky and transitions into the daytime sky. The second entrance begins with the daytime sky and…

SANTA FE, NM For art dealer Brian Lebel, there are many kinds of art collectors. And no two are ever identical. To prove his point, he offers up any one of his sales or events from the last several decades. Some collectors show up for fine art paintings and sculptures. Others for the historic Native American material. Others for the parade saddles or bits and spurs. Even more show up looking for combinations of materials: Navajo weavings and Acoma pottery, or Edward Borein etchings and vintage saddle equipment, or Colt firearms and beaded gauntlets. To Lebel, it’s all art, which is why he offers all of it. “Art brings strange bedfellows together sometimes, and it’s surprising because you’ll never know who you’ll meet,” he says. “The only common ingredient in…

In 1972, a camera crew followed Maria Martinez and Popovi Da around their New Mexico home at the San Ildefonso Pueblo as they demonstrated the methods used to harvest clay, hand-coil a vessel, polish and paint a pot, and then fire the finished pottery. The film is quaint by today’s standards: the narration is simple and flatly delivered from a producer’s voice, the editing is reserved and prioritizes sustained shots of hands at work, and the outdoor footage is a bit washed-out due to the film quality of the period. And yet, the short 25-minute film is captivating. It’s absolutely incredible that the footage exists, that it shows their process so clearly and is today so readily available on YouTube. Footage like that doesn’t come around often. I was reminded…

Les Namingha was born at Zuni Pueblo. His father was Tewa/Hopi and his mother is from Zuni. Growing up at Zuni, Namingha was encouraged to study hard and, eventually, he attended Brigham Young University where he studied design. He didn’t know a lot about his Hopi ancestry other than that there was a long line of pottery artists including his great-great-grandmother, the acclaimed Hopi-Tewa potter, Nampeyo of Hano (1857-1942). In 1989, her great-granddaughter, Namingha’s aunt, Dextra Quotskuyva (1928-2019), began teaching him about his heritage and the multiple aspects of working with clay. She also taught him patience. As with many pueblo pottery mentors, Quotskuyva began by having Namingha watch her at work. “When I first arrived in Hopi, I didn’t touch clay for several days of her instruction. She taught…

Whether formed into a decorative vase, platter, bowl, sculpture or an array of other shapes, clay serves as an important and essential part of Native American culture. Combining both earth and heritage, artists often create vessels with clay native to their land. Pottery not only serves functional purposes, but it’s crucial for expression, directly tying Native and Indigenous people to identity. Pottery appearing in this section, all of it available for purchase, are fine examples that carry forth tradition through style, design, shape and decoration. Others offer a contemporary approach that include voices from the past, while making room for the future. Chase Kahwinhut Earles Chase Kahwinhut Earles’ pottery and sculpture are inspired by his Caddo ancestor’s traditional, ancient pottery. His piece here, titled Kah-how-din’ooh-nah: Lightning and Hail, made of…

SANTA FE, NM The Museum of Indian Arts & Culture shines a spotlight on the artwork of 19 artists who are continuously breaking the mold and innovating the Native American art scene. Running through September 1 in the museum’s JoAnn and Bob Balzer Native Market and Contemporary Art Gallery, Engaging the Future: The Goodman Fellowship Artists features the recipients of the Goodman Fellowship, which provides financial assistance to emerging artists. The exhibition features 2025 Goodman Fellow Auri Poseyesva (Hopi), as well as past recipients like Terran Last Gun (Piikani), Adrian Standing Elk Pinnecoose (Navajo/Southern Ute), Mikayla Patton (Oglala Lakota) and David Naranjo (Santa Clara/Ohkay Owingeh/Cochiti), to name a few. These artists’ work encompasses a variety of mediums including printmaking, photography, painting, jewelry, film, fashion and mixed media. “The 19 contemporary…

DALLAS, TX The Ethnographic Art Department at Heritage Auctions encompasses non-Western art from the Americas, Africa and Oceania, and on June 13 will showcase roughly 500 lots across all categories in a live sale, Ethnographic Art: American Indian, Pre-Columbian and Tribal Art Signature Auction. The Native American offerings span Anasazi pottery from 2,000 years ago to contemporary jewelry made within the last 10 years. “We have a wide variety of material from every area of North America,” says Delia Sullivan, director of Ethnographic Art at Heritage Auctions. “The sale is particularly strong in jewelry with over 90 lots from the Southwest including examples by Charles Loloma and his niece, Sonwai. Three lots of jewelry are from Alaskan native Denise Wallace, a notable jeweler who works ‘transformations’ into her creations.” Another…

ONGOING SANTA FE, NM Engaging the Future: The Goodman Fellowship Artists Museum of Indian Arts & Culture (505) 476-1269 www.miaclab.org ONGOING BANFF, ALBERTA The Ancestors Are Talking: Paintings by the Indigenous Seven Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies (403) 762-2291 www.whyte.org ONGOING GREAT FALLS, MT The Corwin Clairmont Collection C.M. Russell Museum (406) 727-8787 cmrussell.org ONGOING INDIANAPOLIS, IN Voices from the Arctic: Contemporary Inuit Art Eiteljorg Museum (317) 636-9378 www.eiteljorg.org ONGOING PHOENIX, AZ Bob Haozous: A Retrospective View Heard Museum (602) 252-8840 www.heard.org ONGOING SANTA FE, NM Tony Da Adobe Gallery (505) 955-0550 www.adobegallery.com ONGOING NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ Indigenous Identities: Here, Now & Always Zimmerli Art Museum (848) 932-7237 www.zimmerli.rutgers.edu ONGOING DENVER, CO Kent Monkman: History is Painted by the Victors Denver Art Museum (720) 865-5000 www.denverartmuseum.org JUNE 1-28 SANTA…

Every piece of pottery tells a story. Form, color, finish, design, size—it all speaks for the artist and their heritage, interests, personal history, culture and inspiration. If a pot could be made in 10 minutes, it would carry with it less information, but pots can take days, weeks and months. An artist has to sit with it, feel it in their hands and agonize over its creation. A potter might spend more time with that pot in a day than they do with their spouse or kids. It lives with the artist, in their mind and in their soul. It fills their imagination. It’s impossible for a part of the artist not to end up in the clay. Each pot is a record of their life while it was being…

SANTA FE, NM The daughter of Linda Cain and sister of Autumn Borts-Medlock, Santa Clara artist Tammy Garcia is one of the most renowned pueblo potters living today. Her distinctive, polished vessels feature designs inspired by pueblo life, animals, stories and traditional imagery, bridging the gap between traditional and contemporary. And with each new idea she conceives, Garcia’s pottery continues to evolve in new directions. Running from June 1 to 28, King Galleries in Santa Fe will host the exhibition Tammy Garcia: Beauty by Design, highlighting several new works in clay, along with drawings and an in-gallery talk about her creative process. As Garcia creates less than 10 pieces of pottery per year, the upcoming show offers collectors an exciting chance to see brand new works by the artist as…

The city of Seattle—the government, its cultural institutions and even the visitor’s bureau—make something very clear: “Seattle is Indian Country.” The Northwest Coast destination, known for its green forests and emerald waters, has been home to Indigenous people for as long as 12,000 years, and today that rich history and culture flourishes all around the city, from its magnificent museums and many Indigenous-owned galleries to its tribe-focused heritage sites and dozens of displays of public art. Art lives and breathes in the city, and the vast majority of it is by Native American artists, particularly the Coast Salish people whose ancestral lands are where Seattle now sits. Even the name itself is special to the region. Seattle is named after Chief Seattle, the hereditary chief of the Suquamish and Duwamish…

DURANGO, CO Joe Hillaire (1894-1967) was a storyteller and artist whose carved totems, or story poles, made the oral traditions of his Lummi tribe visible. His great grandson, Dan Friday, continues the tradition of storytelling in his totems made of furnace-sculpted and blown glass. Preston Singletary had learned about his Tlingit heritage through his great-grandmother but was deep into glassmaking before he had the idea to incorporate Tlingit design and stories in his work. Raven Skyriver is also Tlingit and grew up on a small island in the San Juans of Washington state. Spooner Marcus is from Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo south of Taos, New Mexico, and incorporates pueblo pottery designs and styles into his glass art. The four studio glass artists will participate in the exhibition Continuum: Contemporary Native Perspectives…

RENO, NV On July 26, four incredible and rare Oscar Howe (1915-1983) paintings will cross the auction block at the Coeur d’Alene Art Auction in Reno, Nevada. The Yanktonai Dakota painter was an influential and important figure in the world of American modernism, and today his paintings are finding new collectors and fetching high prices. The four works in the Nevada sale are Sioux Origin, Dawn Rider and Man, Horse, Buffalo (each estimated at $150,000 to $250,000); as well as Dancer, estimated at $100,000 to $150,000. Dawn Rider, a striking circular image with a flailing horse and rider, was exhibited at the Gilcrease Museum’s Oscar Howe: A Retrospective Exhibition in 1982. All four of the works show Howe’s brilliant abstraction of figures, the land and horse subjects. “We are honored to…