1 Dive into the Native network.
Santa Fe becomes a mecca for Indigenous art this weekend as the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts’ 101st Santa Fe Indian Market takes over downtown with an amazing array of artwork, fashion shows, galas, and performances from Native people throughout North America. In addition, a slew of other Indigenous-centered events, exhibits, and pop-ups happen around the City Different during market.
SWAIA’s Santa Fe Indian Market
Opening Saturday morning, Santa Fe Indian Market features innovative and traditional works by more than 1,000 artists representing 200-plus tribes. Lauded as the most renowned Indigenous art market in the world, it’s truly a stunning display of Indigenous creativity and culture. The market runs Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. swaia.org
Indigenous Present Book Release Party
Jeffrey Gibson (Choctaw-Cherokee) releases his book, Indigenous Present, with a tea dance and party at SITE Santa Fe on Saturday from 2 to 5 p.m. The book chronicles a growing roster of contemporary Indigenous artists, filmmakers, musicians, choreographers, architects, writers, and designers whose work is shining light on Indigenous creativity. Indigenous Present looks at individual practices, in addition to shared history and collaboration. It features New Mexico artists Rose B. Simpson (Santa Clara), composer Raven Chacon (Diné), muralist Nani Chacon (Diné), and photographer Cara Romero (Chemehuevi). Gibson, who has previously shown work at SITE, will represent the United States at the upcoming 60th Venice Biennial in 2024.
The Art of Jean LaMarr
Artist Jean LaMarr (Susanville Indian Rancheria) employs her life experience and creative skill to challenge Indigenous stereotypes and racist imagery. More than 60 of her paintings, sculptures, and prints are featured in the new exhibition, The Art of Jean LaMarr, opening at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts on Friday. Organized by the Nevada Museum of Art and running through January 7, 2024, the exhibit is a fitting show for MoCNA, since LaMarr taught at the Institute of American Indian Arts for several years.
“Jean LaMarr speaks from a place of intense pride in her Indigeneity and a willingness to challenge the erasure and structural racism that Indigenous peoples face in their daily lives,” says Dr. Debra Harry (Kooyooe Tukadu Numu) a professor at the University of Nevada, in a press release.
Preston Singletary, Dreams from the Spirit World
Preston Singletary (Tlingit) creates ethereal glass figures using both blown and sand carved techniques. He pulls inspiration from his tribal mythology and has collaborated with other Indigenous creatives from cultures around the world including Maori, Hawaiian, and Aboriginal artists. Working in glass since 1982, he sets translucent pops of colored glass amid opaque backgrounds, which makes the glass look like it’s glowing from within.
Opening at Blue Rain Gallery on Friday, Dreams from the Spirit World features 20 new works, including three Singletary created in collaboration with Raven Skyriver (Tlingit). Both artists will be at the opening reception from 5 to 8 p.m. Singletary will give a live glass blowing demonstration on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Dineh Jewelry Pop-up
Samantha Platero (Diné) comes from a long line of silversmiths that dates back to her great-grandfather, Pablo Platero. She’s the owner and designer of Dineh Jewelry, which is having a summer pop-up inside Mountain Standard Time on Galisteo Street. Her designs, which have been shown internationally, combine inspiration from traditional Navajo motifs with Platero’s sleek contemporary aesthetic. The result is jewelry that feels like a modern heirloom. Catch Platero Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“Redefining Native Avant-Garde Fashion,” Bishop’s Lodge
The tickets to the SWAIA Fashion Show are sold out, but you can still catch some Indigenous fashion at Bishop’s Lodge Resort this weekend. On Friday at 6 p.m., see the Sky-Eagle Collection by designer Dante Biss-Grayson (Osage), who takes inspiration from his wife and muse. His work has been shown around the world including at the Cannes Film Festival and New York Fashion Week. On Saturday at 5 p.m., a panel discussion hosted by Laura Clark from In the Know by Yahoo! includes Biss-Grayson, Addie Roanhorse, of Roanhorse Designs, and Cece Meadows, of Prados Beauty.
Indigenous Pathways
An Indigenous-planned and -led arts festival, Indigenous Pathways features more than 350 artists on Pueblo of Pojoaque land, at Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino. The three-day event features works ranging from beadwork to ceramics, as well as demonstrations, film screenings, a Pueblo fashion showcase, and dance performances, held Friday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Case Trading Post Artists Market
Both emerging and established Native artists set up shop on Museum Hill during the third-annual event at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian. Think of it like a mini-market where you can shop art, jewelry, and pottery created by more than 15 Indigenous artists including Ronald and Kevin Honyouti (Cochiti Pueblo), Deanna Tenorio (Santo Domingo), and Felicia Fragua (Jemez). Enjoy scrumptious bites from Mas Chile while you shop. The Case Trading Post is open Friday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
2 See the land anew.
Photographer Elizabeth Harvey Abrams presents a series of 33 new images in the exhibition Antidotes: Seeing Beauty, Finding Connection, opening at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum on Saturday from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Harvey Abrams grew up in Las Cruces before leaving to attend college and work a federal job on the East Coast. After 20 years away, she returned in 2015 to work in mental health counseling. “Coming back, I really reconnected with the landscape here,” she says.
The images in Antidotes, which runs through December 2, are ones Harvey Abrams made over the last few years. “These are images of the Chihuahuan Desert,” she says. “When we are open to receiving the beauty and all that’s in the landscape for humans, when we view it with appreciation and love, to me, that is where the antidotes come in.”
5 Stop and smell the flowers.
On Saturday and Sunday, Western New Mexico University presents Ikebana: Japanese Art of Floral Arrangement with demonstrations by artists Alice Fujita and Valeria Brinkers. A resident of Silver City since 2021, Fujita has been practicing Ikebana since in 2003. “Ikebana is a Japanese word for flower arranging, but it also has a spiritual meaning,” she says. “Ike, means arranging, but it also means alive, and to give life. When you go deep in the meaning, you can say enlightening flowers, or you can say making flowers alive.”
Fujita and Brinkers will present between 20 and 30 fresh floral bouquets using seasonal flowers like hydrangeas, sunflowers, zinnias, and orchids in the Francis McCray Gallery in Silver City. “We try to cut the flowers that are curved, or the ones that are hiding and no one is seeing,” Fujita says. “Having them in the house, it feels refreshed and it changes the home environment. It’s addictive.”
Read more: For more things to do, check out our online calendar of events.
