MIAC Sunday Lecture Series: Artist Speaker Series
2013 Sunday Lecture Series "What's New Contemporary Artist Speak"
This series highlights artists from our most recent exhibit "What's New in New: Recent Aqcuisitions". We kick off the series at our exhibit opening on February 17th. The series continues March 17th, April 14th and concludes with our final talk May 5th. All talks start at 2 p.m. , Free with Museum admission. On Sundays admission is Free to New Mexico Residents with ID. Theater seating is limited, first come first serve
You can listen to many of our past talks on our website. Many of the lectures of this past years series are available as podcasts at www.indianartsandculture.org/podcasts
February 17, 2 p.m., Free
What’s New Contemporary Native Artists Speak: Painting and Print
Linda Lomahaftewa and Marla Allison
Linda Lomahaftewa (Hopi/Choctaw) is a Faculty Member in the Studio Arts Department at IAIA. She was also in the first graduating class. Lomahaftewa, an accomplished painter and print maker went on to earn her B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute. Over the past thirty-five years, Lomahaftewa has received numerous awards for excellence in painting and printmaking. Her works are also represented in more than ten significant public collections, some of which include the American Indian Historical Society, San Francisco, California, Center for Arts of Indian America, Washington, D. C., University of Lethbridge, Native Studies Department, Alberta, Canada, the City of Phoenix, and the Native American Art Collection, Phoenix, Arizona. Lomahaftewa is also an influential teacher and arts educator.
Marla Allison is a member of Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico. She is a contemporary Native artist whose primary medium is painting and both lives and makes art from her home studio where she finds comfort and inspiration by connecting with family, tradition, and being close to her community. Since graduating from IAIA, Allison has exhibited at the Heard Museum Indian Fair and Market, the Santa Fe Indian Market, and the Smithsonian Native Art Market in New York. Permanent collections with her include the Heard Museum Permanent Collection, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture , the Red Cloud Indian School Collections, and various private collections. Recently Allison received the Eric and Barbara Dobkin Native Woman's Fellowship at the School for Advanced Research (S.A.R.) in Santa Fe, NM, finishing her fellowship in June of 2010.
March 17, 2 p.m., Free
What’s New Contemporary Native Artists Speak: Jewelry
Veronica and Earnest Benally, Diné jewelers
Ernest and Veronica Benally are both Diné (Navajo) jewelers. Ernest works with both silver and gold, and loves lapidary work. He is best known for his imaginative mosaic inlay work. Veronica approaches her jewelry designs with a motherly perspective, deeply rooted in her respect for her own family and culture. Her designs gleefully experiment with color combinations and materials, including gemstones and sterling, creating a unique, contemporary style of Native American jewelry.
Ernest and Veronica have won many awards: Best of Show at the Intertribal Marketplace of the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles; first place in the jewelry class at the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market in Phoenix; Best of Show by the Southwest Indian Art Award of Excellence; and first and second place in the Santa Fe Indian Market Bracelet and Necklace divisions. They are easily counted among the best Navajo jewelers.
April 14, 2 p.m., Free
What’s New Contemporary Native Artists Speak: Pottery
Jody Naranjo, Santa Clara Pueblo; Russell Sanchez, San Ildefonso Pueblo; Yellow Bird Samora, Taos Pueblo
Jody Naranjo is a contemporary Tewa potter from the Pueblo best known for its potters, Santa Clara. Her grandmother, mother, and aunts, are all world-renowned for their pottery. Naranjo’s work blends contemporary images carved with an Exacto knife onto traditionally-made pottery. Her whimsical designs of women, which she calls "pueblo girls," and animals, are common themes in her work. She won best in show at the 2007 Eiteljorg's Indian Market and participates in the Santa Fe Indian Market, winning first prize in pottery at the 2011 Market. Naranjo was also an artist-in-residence at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art.
Russell Sanchez was born at the San Ildefonso Pueblo and lives there today. Russell was greatly influenced by his aunt, Rose Gonzales, and Dora Tse Pe. While hiking, he discovered the source for the unique green slips that have become a Sanchez color trademark. Lids shaped like bears and shells are signature motifs as well. His newest works include asymmetrical forms and large traditional water jar shapes. He has also begun building his popular bear forms in larger sizes, an exacting technical challenge. Russell has won numerous awards and honors in juried shows every year since 1978. He has works in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institute, the Millicent Rogers Museum, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and the Museum of Natural History (Los Angeles).
Yellowbird Samora, of Taos Pueblo, is "attracted to water," he says, to "fluid, liquid forms." He works "the shapes of traditional Pueblo pottery into something totally contemporary, with less emphasis on design and pattern than on the elemental form of the pottery. I try to leave something to the viewer to interpret. People say it looks like human forms; other viewers see moving water. I want it to have an organic feel--something of Pueblo pottery and something of what the viewer brings to it."
May 5, 2 p.m., Free
What’s New Contemporary Native Artists Speak: Diverse Arts
Ross Chaney and Cliff Fragua
Ross Chaney, a self-taught multi-media artist who works in film, video, installation, painting, drawing and digital imagery. Chaney, Osage Tribe and Cherokee Nation, grew up in Oklahoma. During his childhood, he dealt with recurrent themes of loss, the challenges of fitting in and ultimately, self-discovery though self-expression, while his mother championed education as a way to rise above and not get lost in the fray. He studied at the Oklahoma University. He received a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship and Chaney says, it was “the key thing that set me free.” He studied Japanese art, culture and language and earned two master’s degrees by age 25. Chaney is a believer in the transformative power of art, in freedom of expression and in the power of intention. If you ask him what he hopes to accomplish by sharing his creations, his answer is succinct and strong: “It’s unlimited. To be the change and to change the world.”
Native Pueblo sculptor, Cliff Fragua (Jemez Pueblo), has learned the secret of the stone through his cultural and ancestral teachings. Based in Native American themes, his work shows pride for his culture and a deep understanding of the inherent spirituality of the stone. He has chosen stone as his medium of expression because it is a combination of the basic elements of the earth. Since 1974, when he created his first stone sculpture, Fragua has created a significant body of work that keeps evolving with the artist’s new influences and new interests. His sculptures are featured in such public locations as the Albuquerque International Airport and in permanent collections throughout the country. He has been included in major invitational exhibitions and one-man shows in leading museums and galleries and has earned highest honors and awards for his sculptures.
For more information about programs please call 505-476-1250.