Author: FAAM Staff

SWAIA Ends Relationship with Ira Wilson; New Executive Committee and Two New Staff Members Appointed Santa Fe, NM—Santa Fe Indian Market—the largest and longest-continuing juried Native American art market in the nation celebrated its 98th year this August, maintaining its reputation as the world’s leading destination for Native American and First Nations visual art. With just two years until Santa Fe Indian Market’s centennial, the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA)’s board of directors made a unanimous decision last week to terminate their relationship with Executive Director Ira Wilson (Diné) and to conduct a search for new senior leadership. “We…

In the vast, dimly lit ballroom of the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, the atmosphere was charged with anticipation. The eager audience chatted nervously, waiting for SWAIA director Ira Wilson (Diné) to announce the classification winners, the special award winners, and finally building up to the grand finale—the 98th annual Santa Fe Indian Market Best of Show winner. The 2019 Best Show of winner is Jackie Larson Bread, a Blackfeet beadwork artist from Montana. Inspired by this year’s market theme, “Rise and Remember: Honoring the Resilience of Native Women,” Bread decided to honor her great-aunt with a naturalistic portrait rendered…

By Cedar Marie (Standing Rock Sioux descent) Hearts of Our People pays tribute to Indigenous women’s contributions to American and Canadian art. Themes of legacy, relationships, and power provide a cogent roadmap to navigate the bonds that exist between Native ancestral pasts and their influence on the present and future. Artists Mona M. Smith and Juanita Espinosa welcome viewers to the exhibition and to the Dakota lands that Mia is built upon. The images and sounds of the Mississippi River, birds in sunlit trees, and the quietude of the Milky Way (re)introduce viewers to the cyclical relationships that nature plays…

By Amy Rummel Omaha, NE – Joslyn Art Museum announces the appointment of Annika K. Johnson, PhD, as the museum’s new associate curator of Native American art. She specializes in 19th-century Native American art and exchange with European-Americans, with a focus on the Upper Midwest. Dr. Johnson grew up in the Twin Cities — Dakota homelands called Mni Sota Makoce — and received her PhD in art history from the University of Pittsburgh. Building relationships with Native communities and employing decolonizing strategies have been critical to her research and curatorial practice. In spring 2018, Joslyn received a significant grant from…

By Amanda Horn Great Basin Native Artists and Nevada Museum of Art collaborate to establish the first archive and directory of Great Basin Native artists As the inaugural 2018 Peter S. Pool Research Fellow at the Nevada Museum of Art Center for Art + Environment, artist and Great Basin Native Artists Founder Melissa Melero-Moose has amplified the voices of Indigenous artists working and living in the Great Basin. Reno, Nev. – Northern Paiute artist, Melissa Melero-Moose has long dedicated her creative practice to sharing the beauty of the Great Basin region, people, and cultures. In 2014, she broadened her passion…

By Gracelynn Growingthunder, aged 9 Nakoda, Kiowa, Oklahoma City MonksAboutArt Molly of Denali is art. It is a simple and colorful animated series that presents the natural beauty of Alaska. The language of the region is pronounced to respect time and space, as taught orally. We can learn from the show characters, who are Alaska Natives and use skills like geography, mapmaking, history, and lifeways in places where people live. Their relationships allow respectful learning from grandparents, parents, relatives, and friends. In Molly of Denali, animals are important to the people of Denali for companionship, food, clothing, and in living…

Issue No. 22, Spring 2019 Click here to purchase a digital copy for $7 from Issuu. To purchase a print copy, select your location: Locations US, New Mexico $9.74 USD US, other than NM $8.99 USD Canada $9.99 USD International $15.92 USD Features Creation Story: Navajo Origin Narratives in the Painting of Harrison Begay and Gerald Nailor, Jennifer McLerran, PhD, 20–27 The Rhizomes of Repatriation, Andrea L. Ferber, PhD, 52–54 The Arc of Guna: From Luis Méndez to the Cosmos, Peter Szok, PhD, 28–37 Early Southwest Silversmithing, Denise Neil, PhD (Delaware Tribe/Cherokee Nation), 38–45 The Art of Identity: The Image and…

7th Annual Native POP Art Market and Cultural Celebration features Art, Fashion, Film and Music Main Street Square, Rapid City, SD Reception: Friday, July 19, 5:00 am – 8:00 pm Market: Saturday, July 20, 9:00 am – 8:00 pm Native POP: People of the Plains is a one-day, juried Native American art market and cultural celebration featuring original work by established and emerging Native visual artists focusing on Great Plains culture. This is the seventh year for the free and family-friendly annual event at Main Street Square in the heart of downtown Rapid City, South Dakota on the third weekend…

Anchorage Charlotte Jensen Native Arts Market Dimond Center By Bryn Barabas Potter Even if transportation requires bush planes and boats, the Charlotte Jensen Native Arts Market (CJNAM) brings people together. The market’s atmosphere is incredibly welcoming, filled with smiles, good cheer, and amazing art, and like Alaska, CJNAM is big. This year 210 artist spaces filled the common areas of the Dimond Center, the only facility in Anchorage large enough to host this event. CJNAM takes place during the Alaskan Fur Rendezvous, known as “Rondy.” which began with trappers bringing furs to Anchorage. In 2019 Rondy celebrated its 84th winter…

Norman Gerald Clarke: Out of Sight, Out of Mind Lightwell Gallery, University of Oklahoma By Michelle J. Lanteri An artist and assistant professor of ethnic studies at University of California, Riverside, Gerald Clarke (Cahuilla) curated his solo exhibition as an intertribal crossroads,  bringing visual signifiers together to question recent historical moments. This remembrance includes the creation of his installation at the Lightwell Gallery in the University of Oklahoma’s School of Visual Arts building. Named Out of Sight, Out of Mind, the show’s well-trodden title frames several of Clarke’s series critiquing the branding of people, places, and cultures in lands now…