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  For Immediate Release 

 

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  Lara Evans, Associate Dean 

505.424.2389, or [email protected] 

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Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA)
Fall 2018 Artist-in-Residence Program

IAIA Continues Successful Artist-in-Residence Program

SANTA FE, NM - June 21, 2018 - T he Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) announces the selection of upcoming artists for the IAIA Artist-in-Residence program. Artists are selected by a campus committee consisting of students, faculty, and staff. Artist-in-Residence Program Director and IAIA Associate Dean Dr. Lara M. Evans (Cherokee Nation) explains: "Our aim is to bring a wide variety of artists to interact with our campus and the Santa Fe art community. There are so many ways to be an artist and include artistry as a part of one's life, whether that's engaging with an art market or making meaningful objects for use within one's family and community.
 
The artists participating in the residency program are coming to make art as part of a community. It's a chance to come together, to share creative processes and the meanings behind their materials and techniques. It's a chance to experiment, too. Each artist brings something new to the community, and we all become part of the history of the new work artists create during their residencies."
 
The IAIA Artist-in-Residence program began in 2015 with a single funding source. In the past year IAIA gained additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts and also entered into a partnership with Sunrise Springs Spa Resort.
 
Listed below are the Native and First Nations artists who have been selected to visit the IAIA campus in fall 2018 to make art and interact with both the campus community and the Santa Fe arts community. The A-i-R Program includes public receptions and artist talks by each artist.


JANET ROGERS (Mohawk/Tuscarora)
Residency Dates: July 3, 2018 - August 31, 2018

Janet is a Mohawk/Tuscarora writer from Six Nations. Janet works in the genres of  poetry, spoken word performance poetry, video poetry, and recorded poetry with music . Janet is also a radio broadcaster, documentary producer, media and sound artist. Her literary titles include;  Splitting the Heart , Ekstasis Editions 2007,  Red Erotic, Ojistah Publishing 2010,  Unearthed , Leaf Press 2011,  Peace in Duress , Talonbooks 2014, and  Totem Poles and Railroads , ARP Books, 2016; and a forthcoming title  Between Spirit and Emotion , Bookland Press, Fall 2018. She produced and hosted  Native Waves Radio on CFUV-FM from 2007-2017. Her music column,  Tribal Clefs , was part of CBC Victoria's programming from 2008-2016. Her radio documentaries "Bring Your Drum: 50 years of Indigenous Protest Music" and "Resonating Reconciliation" won Best Radio at the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Festival in 2011 and 2013. 

The 2Ro Media Collective is a production company she and Mohawk media artist Jackson 2bears own and operate which produced the short experimental documentary NDNs on the Airwaves about CKRZ-FM Six Nations radio. 2Ro Media also developed the multiple media project titled For This Land presented as multi-channel media installations in several galleries and public venues.  Janet also produced a six-part radio documentary series titled NDNs on the Airwaves focused on the current history of native radio in Canada (launched in February 2016).

The IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Art (MoCNA) will host a Book Launch  and public reading of the spring edition of of Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art and Thought, Friday July 2, 2018 from 12:00noon to 1:30pm. Janet M. Rogers, current IAIA/Sunrise Springs Spa Resort artist-in-residence is the guest editor of this issue.

Janet Roger's residency session is made possible by the generous support of Sunrise Springs Spa Resort in partnership with IAIA.


 
LUANNE REDEYE (Seneca)
Residency Dates: September 1, 2018 - October 31, 2018
 
Luanne Redeye uses painting as a way to see others. Working primarily in oil she depicts the relationship between perception and experience of native identity through genre scenes, designs, and portraits.

Born in Jamestown, New York, Luanne grew up on the Allegany Indian Reservation in Western New York. It is from here where she draws inspiration incorporating community and family members into her paintings which gives her work a strong personal and emotional component.

Luanne currently lives in Albuquerque, NM. She is an enrolled member of the Seneca Nation of Indians and the Hawk Clan; she studied at the University of New Mexico where she received her MFA in 2011. She has exhibited throughout the US and has been the recipient of various awards including, most recently, the Barbara and Eric Dobkin Fellowship at the  in Santa Fe, NM.
 
Luanne Redeye's residency session is made possible by the generous support of Sunrise Springs Spa Resort in partnership with IAIA.



 
ROBERT "SPOONER" MARCUS (Ohkay Owingeh)
Residency Dates: August 20, 2018 - October 19, 2018

Robert "Spooner" Marcus is a glass artist from Ohkay Owingeh. In 1993, just out of high school, his first job was working in a small glass studio in Espanola making juice cups. This experience as a production glass worker eventually led to his future as a glass artist. After that shop closed, he worked in a wood shop for four years. Then, in 2000, he heard of a glass shop in Taos and decided to dedicate himself to that program. Taos Glass Arts proved to be a turning point in his career. At this shop, he had the opportunity to expand his knowledge and work with other Native American glass artists. Taos Glass Arts closed it's doors in 2005 and in 2006, he started working at Prairie Dog Glass located at Jackalope in Santa Fe. This is where he currently works producing custom and art glass. Some techniques he uses include blown and sand-carved vessels, sand castings, sculpted figures, and fused glass.




CATHERINE "MAGGIE" THOMPSON (Fond du Lac Ojibwe)
Residency Dates: September 1, 2018 - September 23, 2018

Maggie Thompson, a member of the Fond du Lac Ojibwe, was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Textiles at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 2013. As a textile artist and designer, she derives inspiration from her Ojibwe heritage, family history, and through themes related to the contemporary Native American experience. Thompson's work calls attention to its materiality by pushing the viewer's traditional understanding of textiles. She explores materials in her work by incorporating multimedia elements such as photographs, beer caps, found objects, beadwork and 3D-printed objects.

Thompson had her first solo exhibition, entitled Where I Fit, at the All My Relations Gallery in 2014. Since then, she has exhibited at regional institutions such as the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Plains Art Museum. In 2015, she received support from the Minnesota State Arts Board Cultural Community Partnership Grant and the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Regional Fellowship to create a body of work for her exhibit, On Borrowed Time, which explores themes of grief around her experience of losing a parent at the Minnesota Textile Center.

In addition to her fine arts practice, Thompson runs a small knitwear business known as Makwa Studio. She is also an emerging curator of contemporary Native art and has worked on exhibitions at the Two Rivers Gallery, the McKnight Foundation, and the Minnesota Museum of American Art.


 

KATIE DORAME (Gabrielino/Tongva)
Residency Dates: September 26, 2018 - October 20, 2018

Katie Dorame (Gabrielino/Tongva) is a visual artist born in Los Angeles, currently living and working in Oakland, California. Dorame creates paintings and drawings filled with actors, film scenes, props, and costumes -- building her own directorial vision. Her work offers a perspective outside of conventional blockbusters, twisting classic, contemporary, and b-movies into other worlds.

Challenging Hollywood's typecasting and depictions of Indigenous actors and other actors of color by recasting, re-working roles and using genres, both film and art historical, to question cinema's romanticized views of the past that have persisted. 

Dorame's work has been exhibited nationally at various galleries including Shulamit Nazarian, Southern Exposure, Galería de la Raza, Incline Gallery, the Thacher Gallery at the University of San Francisco and the Handwerker Gallery at Ithaca College in New York. She received her MFA from California College of the Arts and her BA from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is an Indigenous artist of mixed descent and member of the Gabrielino/Tongva tribe of California. 




BOBBY WILSON (Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota)
Residency Dates: September 1, 2018-  September 23, 2018

Bobby Wilson ( Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota) has painted dozens of murals, performed spoken word poetry at events across the country, and appeared on television and radio numerous times. In addition to numerous artistic accomplishments, Bobby has garnered international attention as a member of the comedy group "The 1491s," appearing on major media outlets including Comedy Central, Al Jazeera, and NPR. Bobby's work is heavily influenced by his Dakota heritage combined with a lifelong city upbringing. Much of his work strives to convey a social and political message, tackling issues of racism, homelessness, and imperialism while maintaining a sense of humor and hope. He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and is currently based in Tucson, Arizona.




 
MONTY LITTLE (Diné)
Residency Dates: October 3, 2018- November 5, 2018

After five semesters of studying architecture at Arizona State University, Monty Little enlisted in the Marine Corps as a Rifleman in 2004. During his enlistment, Little was stationed with 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines and served as a fire team leader while deployed in Iraq for seven months. In 2008, Little was Honorably Discharged from the Marine Corps.

Following his service, Little graduated with a BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in 2015, with a double major -- Creative Writing and Studio Arts. It was at IAIA where he began to translate his thoughts on his experience of war and post-war. Little visualizes his written work of anomalistic images of war, past and current memories, and employs a disarray of images that interstice uncertainty. Placement is indirect, yet strict, but not predictable-he finds clarity to be marginal. Little began to paint and print his poems using each medium as erasure, where unsettling truths reveal personal components and texture is integral, yet disruptive, to finding his past chaotic.
 
Little's current body of work re-conceptualizes various Edward S. Curtis photographs in which the indigenous portraits are renegotiated in a distorted lens. Meaning, Curtis's nostalgic portraits are presently an illusion; whereas, the impact of modernity, assimilation, and complex identity now distort contemporary Indigeneity. He is interested in renovating Curtis's photographs by investigating irregularity in portraiture, where he uses glazing and alla prima techniques to paint his photos surreal. He continues to explore the discourse of perception in relationship to traditional and contemporary Indigenous identity. Little currently lives and works in Tulsa, Oklahoma with his family.




KENNETH JOHNSON (Muscogee [Creek]/Seminole) Residency Dates: October 30, 2018 - December 30, 2018

Kenneth Johnson is a custom jewelry designer who is quick to smile and is known for his attention to detail in his jewelry creations. He specializes in stamp work, repousse, and engraving precious metals using Southeastern Native motifs.

He also enjoys using his experience in the arts and organizing talent for community development projects such as the ongoing Mvskoke Canoe Paddle Project and, in the past, the Santa Fe Indian Market collaborative concho belt, silverware, and necklace projects.

Raised in Oklahoma, Kenneth is from the Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole tribes, and has received recognition for creating iconic commissions for U.S., Canadian and Oklahoma Supreme Court Justices, U.S. Congressmen, Native American Tribal Chiefs, museums, and distinguished individuals. 

He is a former Southwestern Association for Indian Arts Board Member, is currently Chair of the Mvskoke Arts Association, and is a new Board member of the Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts in Santa Fe.

Kenneth currently makes his home and art in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His residency is generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.




ADRIAN WALL (Jemez Pueblo)
Residency Dates: October 21, 2018 - December 15, 2018

Adrian Wall is a sculptor from Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico. He received his BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in 2014. He has been sculpting since his late teens and has always had an affinity towards stone sculpture.
 
While Adrian Wall's primary medium is stone, he works with many materials, including clay, bronze, and glass. He has won several major awards in sculpture competitions across the United States and is a member of the Indigenous Sculptors Society, an accomplished group of Native American Sculptors dedicated to the advancement of stone sculpture. His work can be found in the collections of the Eiteljorg Museum, the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center Museum, and the Hauku Museum.
 
Adrian has been the recipient of several fellowships including the National Museum of the American Indian Visiting Artist Fellow, the School for Advanced Research Rollin and Mary Ella King Native Artist Fellowship, and the Southwest Association for Indian Arts Fellowship. The subjects of Wall's sculptures most often relate to his Pueblo heritage. Stylistically, Wall is well known for blending figurative detail with abstract forms.





TAHNIBAA NAATAANII (Navajo)
Residency Dates: October 30, 2018 - December 11, 2018

TahNibaa is of the Many Hogan Clan and born for the Coyote Pass Clan. Her maternal and paternal grandfathers are the Mexican Clan and the Steep Rock Clan. She is from Table Mesa, New Mexico and Toadlena, New Mexico.

As a young girl, her paternal grandmother gave her the Navajo name TahNibaa Aglohiigiih. When translated it means TahNibaa the Weaver. Navajo Weaving was introduced to her by her mother, Sarah H. Natani, when she was seven years of age and in the second grade. She learned how to weave stripes first, then graduated to weaving squares and diamonds. She wove throughout her teenage years. After she graduated from high school, her weaving ceased for a moment as she joined the U.S. Navy. After her Naval tour, she longed to hear the tapping of the weft and, shortly after, began to weave once again. She is discovering that she is falling in love with her work each day.

TahNibaa enjoys raising sheep, working with raw and processed wool, enjoys weaving traditional-style Shoulder Blankets, contemporary designs, and exploring the creative process. When she weaves, she feels the wisdom of her GREAT Matriarchs and "Asdzaa Maaiideeshgiizhnii" who make her a 5th generation weaver. 



 
MELANIE SAINZ (Ho-Chunk)
Residency Dates: November 1, 2018 - December 13, 2018

My art is a reflection of the creative inspiration and mentoring from generations past. I equally credit my formal art instruction and my tribe's encouragement to uphold cultural preservation through the arts. My work exemplifies elements of my people as an adaptive culture. Among my favorite materials are porcupine quills combined with traditional and adapted techniques and materials that I have discovered, collected, processed, and integrated into my work. Long before the arrival of the European explorers and traders in Wisconsin, my Ho-Chunk ancestors were using materials that nature provided to adorn themselves, their clothing, and their surroundings. In Ho-Chunk, we do not possess the word for "art," but we do understand the importance of beauty in our connection to the natural world.
 
I was an art educator in public and private schools and art museums for thirty years. Although I've stepped away from full-time teaching status, my art career is now balanced between creating, exhibiting, and teaching art and with helping new and emerging Native artists in the Great Lakes area to achieve their goals.
 
My art keeps me centered -- it is my therapy. I find comfort and peace with my art. While engaged in art making, I often think of my conincaaga (grandmother) Rose Whiterabbit Miner and my naani (mother) Bernadine Miner Tallmadge. They were talented artists and successful entrepreneurs. I thank them for their love, influence, time, and patience as they were my first art teachers and they continue to be my role models. My life's goal is to mirror their artistic mastery and their willingness to share their knowledge with others. Art allows me to continue to tell our story with my authentic voice and I believe that my commitment to my cultural art forms will strengthen the creative culture of my Ho-Chunk people. 


LILLIAN PITT (Wasco/Warm Springs/Yakama)
Residency Dates: September 17, 2018 - September 28, 2018


Lillian Pitt is a Wasco, Warm Springs, Yakama artist who was born on the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Wasco and Paiute Reservation in 1943. She is known internationally for her masks of clay, bronze, and cast glass, along with her sculpture, jewelry, and prints -- which honor her ancestors from the Columbia River Gorge. 

She lives and works in Portland, Oregon. Lillian has been the lead teacher for the Culture Bearers for the Confluence Project and has now retired to head the Lillian Pitt Education Fund. Currently, she is on the Fisher's Memorial Task Force which is working to have a sculpture built to help fishers be safe when they are on the rivers and to honor the fishers who have vanished in the rivers.


For questions regarding the A-i-R program, or to interview any of the artists, please contact Lara M. Evans at 505.424.2389 or  [email protected]. 

Funding for the IAIA A-i-R Program has been generously provided by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Sunrise Springs Spa Resort.

Offering undergraduate degrees in Studio Arts, Creative Writing, Cinematic Arts and Technology, Indigenous Liberal Studies, and Museum Studies -- a minor in Performing Arts -- an MFA in Creative Writing -- along with certificates in Business and Entrepreneurship, Museum Studies, and Native American Art History -- IAIA is the only college in the nation dedicated to the study of contemporary Native arts. The school serves 517 full time equivalent (FTE) Native and non-Native American college students from across the globe.  IAIA is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission -- and is the only college in New Mexico accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. 
 
  
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About IAIA -- For over 50 years, the Institute of American Indian Arts has played a key role in the direction and shape of Native expression. With an internationally acclaimed college, museum, and tribal support resource through the IAIA Land Grant Programs, IAIA is dedicated to the study and advancement of Native arts and cultures -- and committed to student achievement and the preservation and progress of their communities.  Learn more about IAIA and our mission at www.iaia.edu. 

 
The Institute of American Indian Arts Foundation is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization.  To make a donation on-line, please click here -- or call toll free: 1.800.804.6423.