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  • Writer's pictureMelissa Melero-Moose

2023 Exhibitions

IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts 108 Cathedral Pl, Santa Fe, NM 87501 South Gallery

Inherent Memory February 24–June 25, 2023 Image by Lena Tseabbe Wright (Paiute/Yurok)



Inherent Memory features contemporary Indigenous basketry-related art created by Indigenous women and nonbinary artists from California and the Great Basin, including painting, sculpture, multimedia, basketry, poetry, video, and photography. This exhibition displays the artists’ stories of their connection to basketry and the their homelands. California and Great Basin Indigenous artists continue to evolve and interweave basketry designs, textures, symbolism, materials and techniques into many different art media.

Inherent Memory will showcase the work of 19 artists from this underrepresented area. Several of these artists have been IAIA artists-in-residence and IAIA alumna. Some of the exhibiting artists include Sarah Biscarra Dilley (Northern Chumash), whose multimedia video layers basketry images over landscapes of her homelands, exploring the spaces between the worlds of bloodlines, bodies, and the land. Artist and activist Fawn Douglas (Las Vegas Paiute Tribe) shares and preserves stories of Indigenous Peoples, the natural world, and the environment through sculptural baskets, bracelets made of willow, and basketry-inspired paintings. Brittany Britton (Hupa) creates burden baskets made of loosely twined wire. Natalie Ball’s (Klamath, Modoc, and African American) work addresses racial narratives critical to the understanding of self and nation, as well as shared experiences and histories. Other featured artists include Ka’ila Farrell-Smith (Klamath and Modoc), Leah Mata Fragua (Northern Chumash), Monique Sol Sonoquie (Chumash, Apache, Yaqui, Zapotec), Lena Tseabbe Wright (Nevada Paiute and Yurok), and Tanaya Winder (Southern Ute, Duckwater Shoshone, Pyramid Lake Paiute, Diné, and African American). Inherent Memory is guest-curated by mixed-media artist Melissa Melero Moose (Northern Paiute and Modoc).




DANCING FOR THE EARTH,

DANCING FOR THE PEOPLE Powwow Regalia and

Art of the Great Basin

Great Basin Native Artists Gallery

Stewart Indian School Cultural Center and Museum

Carson City, Nevada

ON DISPLAY THROUGH MAY 26, 2023


Image by Bucky Harjo

The exhibition, Dancing for the Earth, Dancing for the People: Pow Wow Regalia and Art of the Great Basin at the Great Basin Native Artists Gallery will display contemporary pow wow dance regalia, photography, mixed media sculpture, Great Basin beadwork, digital graphic design and more.


The exhibition seeks to display a small view into the pow wow culture and how contemporary and historical regalia were never “costumes” to the Indigenous peoples of this continent. The contemporary pow wow is a social gathering, a competitive dance contest, an art exhibition, a cultural exchange, and so much more. Evolving over the years from traditional tribal ceremony, which continues on and grows stronger, the pow wow brings the people together many times each year in healing, dance, drumming and song.


Some of the participating artists will include: Phil Buckheart, Bucky Harjo, Linda Eben Jones, Jack Malotte, Lyndah Steele, Theo Steele, Janice Eben Stump, Chad Yellow John, and Bhie-Cie Zahn-Nahtzu.


10am–5pm | Monday–Friday Closed Weekends, State and Federal Holidays 1 Jacobsen Way, Carson City, Nevada (775) 687-7608 StewartIndianSchool.com

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