Collection Stories

An Enticing Portal

ColavecchioS — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 16:00:25 +0000

Collection Stories

An Enticing Portal

From Issue: Winter 2025/Spring 2026 / Vol. 26 No. 4

by Halena Kapuni-Reynolds

In Hawai‘i, a common practice for visitors is to ask to be granted permission to enter a home or place of learning. The visitor may say “hui” (“hello”) to indicate his or her arrival or perform a “mele kāhea” in ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i (Hawaiian language) to request to come in. The host may in turn respond “mai” (“come inside”) or with a song known as a “mele komo" to welcome him or her. If the visitor did not bring anything for the host such as food, his or her voice (“leo”) can be a gift.

Native Hawaiian artist Lehuauakea prepares barkcloth to make a kapa.

Photo by Garrett Vreeland

This tradition inspired Native Hawaiian (Kanaka ‘Ōiwi) artist Lehuauakea to create “Puka Komo ‘Ekahi: Portal to Grant Permission.” Lehuauakea combines the mele komo with intricate hand-painted patterns to create the look of a portal.

This piece, which the National Museum of the American Indian acquired just last year, is titled “Puka Komo ‘Ekahi” (first portal) because it is the first in a series of works the artist is creating. “With these four pieces, I want to explore the power of language—not just as a mode of transmitting knowledge but also as a way of communicating privilege and access to cultural knowledge,” Lehuauakea said.

The “kapa” (barkcloth) on which her words are painted is a textile material made from the inner bark of the paper mulberry tree, or “wauke.” Artists across the Pacific region have been making kapa from wauke and other plants for thousands of years. The inner bark is prepared and placed in water to ferment until it is soft enough to be pounded into cloth. Once the cloth is dry, it can be painted or stamped with delicate patterns. Customarily, this type of cloth would be used for clothing, bedding, to catch a baby being born and wrapping bones during burials or other ceremonial purposes.

Lehuauakea learned how to make kapa from traditional artisan Wesley Sen. Because of teachers such as Sen, the art of kapa making has experienced a resurgence during the past four decades.

“Puka Komo ‘Ekahi” uses these timeless techniques to create a portal for visitors to enter into Hawaiian ways of knowing. Lehuauakea said her art “straddles both the worlds of honoring the technical ancestral foundations of kapa making while experimenting and innovating in its form to create things that you would have never seen 600 years ago.”

This kapa is a barkcloth wall hanging that displays a traditional “mele komo,” or a welcome chant, written in gilded ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language) granting a visitor permission to enter.

“Puka Komo ʻEkahi: Portal to Grant Permission,” Lehuauakea (Native Hawaiian), 2024; barkcloth, pigments and gold leaf; 28" x 28". 27/847

Photo by NMAI Staff

E hea i ke kanaka
E komo ma loko
E hānai ai a hewa (ka) waha
Eia no ka uku lā o ka leo
A he leo wale nō ē

Call out to the person,
“Come in!”
Eat until your mouth is satiated.
This is the reward for your voice.
Indeed, it is simply a voice.

Authors

Halena Kapuni-Reynolds

Halena Kapuni-Reynolds (Native Hawaiian) is an associate curator at the National Museum of the American Indian.

A Purse that Carries History

ArtmanM — Thu, 22 May 2025 15:00:00 +0000

Collection Stories

A Purse that Carries History

From Issue: Spring 2025 / Vol. 26 No. 1

by Anya Montiel

While at a powwow with her children, Diné (Navajo) artist Dyanni Youngbear Smith watched a dragonfly land on her beaded purse. That gentle moment inspired the creation of her stunning “Dragonfly Spring” pink, glass-beaded purse on which is a dragonfly made entirely of beads. Smith reflected, “I was fascinated how the wings made my beadwork look like stained glass. I just have an adoration for insects, and dragonflies are all over where I live in Oklahoma.”

“Dragonfly Spring” is one of four purses that are designed by contemporary Indigenous artists and now on display at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

“Dragonfly Spring,” Dyanni Youngbear Smith, (Diné [Navajo]), 2011; deer hide, cotton cloth, glass beads, metal, and thread; 30.8″ x 9″ x 1″. 26/9612

Photo by NMAI staff

Raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and living in Shawnee, Oklahoma, Smith has been a powwow dancer since the age of 8. An accomplished bead artist, Smith taught herself the art form, and her uncle Roger Russel (Winnebago/Lakota) helped her refine her techniques. She has become known for beading intricate purses, moccasins, vests and powwow regalia.

Along with being inspired by nature, “Dragonfly Spring” incorporates gifts and symbolism from her family. Smith beaded on deer hide donated from her uncle and lovingly added that, “I was hoarding [the hide] for something special.” Her aunt, Cheyenne jeweler Victoria Adams, gave her the antique brass clasp closure, and Smith added the chain. The abstract floral designs with white outlines along with the tassels on the purse reflect her children’s paternal Sauk and Meskwaki heritage. As for why she added the pastel pink background and the blue, fuchsia and green florals, Smith disclosed that, “I never have a plan. I look at my design and dig through my beads. Whatever speaks to me is what ends up on the piece.”

The purse, which is on display at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., has won many ribbons. These include the Heard Museum Guild’s Indian Fair and Art Market Exhibitors Juried Competition Honorable Mention and Judge’s Choice awards in 2011 and Second Place in the Diverse Arts Division at the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts’ 90th Annual Santa Fe Indian Market in 2011.

In addition to her beading and powwow dancing, Smith has other talents. She was a chef before her son, Kealan, was born in 2004. Since he and then her daughter, Abria, were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, Smith has been a full-time artist. Her children continue to inspire her art and life. As she did for “Dragonfly Spring,” Smith includes her family’s history in each of her artworks. Smith said of her children, “I draw inspiration from who they are.”

Authors

Anya Montiel

Anya Montiel is a curator at the National Museum of the American Indian.

The Divinity of Maize

ThorneLE — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 20:39:10 +0000

Collection Stories

The Divinity of Maize

From Issue: Fall 2024 / Vol. 25 No. 3

by Cécile R. Ganteaume

Mayan peoples have lived throughout the Yucatán Peninsula in southeast Mexico for more than two millennia. Throughout their long history, “maize” (corn) has been not only the most important food in their diet but also has played a significant role in their culture, religion and art. In Mayan thought, human beings were created from and live in communion with maize—both caring for and being sustained by it.

The Mayan maize god Hun Hunahpu stares back at its viewer, evoking great regenerational power from its 2.5-inch-tall head.

Pendant, Maya, Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico, 250–900 A.D.; greenstone; 2.5" x 2". 4/6276

Photo by NMAI Staff

Between 250 and 900 A.D., the ancient Mayan peoples built large ritual and civic centers such as El Mirador, Tikal, Copan, Uxmal, Chichén Itzá and Palenque. These impressive cities were supported by maize cultivation, and throughout them, images of their maize god, Hun Hunahpu, were carved into architectural panels, painted onto murals and ceramics, molded into clay sculptures and carved into jade and greenstone pendants such as this one in the National Museum of the American Indian collection.

In Mayan art, the maize god is shown in various stages of life, including as a baby emerging into the world from water and an old man on the verge of death. As is depicted on this pendant, he is also frequently portrayed as a male youth with a tufted head and trifurcated headdress representing corn stalks. As such, he embodies triumphalism and the power of regeneration.

The Mayan people still hold celebrations throughout the year to honor the importance of corn and its growth cycle, from seed to harvest. As one K’iche’ Mayan calendar keeper Roberto Poz Pérez said, “This is our land. We speak our language, and we know our roots. Our traditions are alive. We know how to grow our sacred food, corn, and also know about our calendars. Our children will maintain the knowledge alive.”

Authors

Cécile R. Ganteaume

Cécile R. Ganteaume is a curator at the National Museum of the American Indian.

An Artistic G.I. Jane

ColavecchioS — Sun, 21 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0000

Collection Stories

An Artistic G.I. Jane

From Issue: Fall 2025 / Vol. 26 No. 3

by Anne Bolen

The comic strip “G.I. Gertie” featuring a fiesty member of the Women’s Army Corp (WAC) during World War II might have easily been about the illustrator who drew it. In her biography “Eva Mirabal: Three Generations of Tradition and Modernity at Taos Pueblo” by her son, artist Jonathan Warm Day Coming, and curator Lois P. Rudnick, she is described as “headstrong, self-assured, good-humored and ambitious.” Her passion for her art drove her to create many paintings and illustrations depicting her Pueblo culture, in spite of her career being cut short.

Eva Mirabal drew the “G.I. Gertie” comic strip and painted many murals for the U.S. Air Force during World War II (below), leading to a commission of this dressing screen.

Photo by U.S. Army, Courtesy of National Archives at Denver

Eva Mirabal drew the “G.I. Gertie” comic strip and painted many murals for the U.S. Air Force during World War II (below), leading to a commission of this dressing screen (right).

Three-paneled screen, Eva Mirabal (Eah Ha Wa, Taos Pueblo), 1944; cotton canvas, wood and casein paint; 61" x 69". 24/6895

Photo by NMAI Staff

Born in 1920, Mirabal (named Eah-Ha-Wa, or “Fast Growing Corn”) grew up with her family in Taos Pueblo in northern New Mexico. Her father, Pedro, who modeled for artists, gave Mirabal her first art supplies. From 1936 to 1942, she attended the Santa Fe Indian School, a boarding school where she studied under painter Dorothy Dunn. From her, she learned the “studio style” or “flat style” of painting that Dunn felt reflected Pueblo designs found on murals, pottery and rock art. Mirabal adapted these techniques but made them her own, so that, Dunn once wrote, she “had the ability to translate everyday events into scenes of warmth and semi-naturalistic beauty.”

After winning a poster contest the U.S. Treasury Department sponsored for war bonds, Mirabal enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1943. A private, she became the WAC’s only full-time artist, drawing “G.I. Gertie” for “AIR WAC,” a U.S. Air Force newspaper, and painting murals for the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base where she was stationed in Ohio. She worked under muralist Stuyvesant Van Veen, who commissioned her to paint this dressing screen for his first wife, Frances, in 1944 (far right), the only such work she is known to have created. She was a sergant by the time she was discharged in 1946.

Mirabal would go on to teach art at Southern Illinois Normal University. Yet only a year later, in 1947, her mother’s illness drew her back to Taos. There, the GI Bill allowed her to study at the Taos Valley Art School until 1951.

During her lifetime, Mirabal’s work was exhibited at many museums and institutions, including the Addison Gallery of American Art, Dayton Art Institute, Philbrook Museum of Art and St. Louis Art Museum. In 2015, the U.S. Army Women’s Museum honored Mirabel for her military service.

In 1950, Mirabal married Manuel Gomez and they had two sons, Christopher and Jonathan. Although Mirabal died in 1968, when Jonathan was still young, he recalled, “I always remembering her smiling, doing her artwork at her drawing table.”

Authors

Anne Bolen

Anne Bolen is executive editor of American Indian magazine.

Serenity Gifted from the Stars

ArtmanM — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 15:00:00 +0000

Collection Stories

Serenity Gifted from the Stars

From Issue: Summer 2025 / Vol. 26 No. 2

by Anya Montiel

A captivating figure now stands in the National Museum of the American Indian in New York. Visitors may find themselves compelled to pause to look at the sculpture, which is much of its intent.

This clay sculpture, entitled “Remind,” is now on display at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York. The figure’s plus signs and x’s surrounding its head and upper body are representative of stars.

“Remind,” Rose B. Simpson (Kha’p’o Owinge [Santa Clara Pueblo]), 2022; clay, steel, grout, lava beads; 66" x 35" x 15". 27/848

Photo by Elisabeth Bernstein, courtesy of the artist; Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco

This recent addition to the museum’s collection is the inspiration of Rose B. Simpson, a Kha’p’o Owinge (Santa Clara Pueblo) multimedia artist who descends from several generations of Pueblo artists and creatives. Her great-grandmother Rose Naranjo—for whom she was named—was a famed ceramicist who taught her techniques to her 10 children. Her maternal grandmother, Rina Swentzell, was an architect, historian and author with a doctorate in American Studies from the University of New Mexico. And her mother, Roxanne Swentzell, is not only a farmer but also a noted clay and bronze sculptural artist with her own gallery.

While Simpson is perhaps best known for her contemporary clay figures, she works in several different media—metal, automotive design, fashion, poetry and even performance art. “I am a hard worker. I have lots of projects,” she said. Her busy schedule also includes family and community responsibilities. “I have a very hectic life as an only parent to a little girl, and I participate in my [Pueblo] community,” she said. With all these demands on her time, she said, “I oftentimes get myself kind of whirled up in my thoughts and have anxiety for all the things that need to be done.”

Her sculpture, now prominently displayed at the NMAI, was intended to be a personal remedy for such moments of stress. Entitled “Remind,” the clay figure has plus signs and x’s surrounding its head and upper body that resemble tattoos yet were carefully painted on with a metallic glaze.

Simpson said these markings represent stars, and the artwork could be a reminder for us all to look up at them to maintain perspective, to remember our lives are part of a greater picture. “When I get too small in my thinking, I get myself more anxious and more worried and more wound up,” she explained. “So if I remember that I am part of something much bigger, it calms me down. … I can be a much healthier and happier and [a more] stronger and powerful person.” While stemming from Simpson’s life and experience, “Remind” is an offering of calm and comfort to all.

Authors

Anya Montiel

Anya Montiel is a curator at the National Museum of the American Indian.

A Tiny Bear’s Long Journey

ArtmanM — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Collection Stories

A Tiny Bear’s Long Journey

From Issue: Winter 2024 / Vol. 25 No. 4

by Anne Bolen

On display at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., is a group of animal-inspired objects from the NMAI collection made by artists throughout the Western Hemisphere. Among the plethora of masks, pottery and other artworks in this “Window on Collections” display is a polar bear less than 3 inches long. This small figurine may be easy to miss at first glance, but it deserves a closer look as it can tell much about the artist’s Yupik people.

This small polar bear depicted after it just caught a fish was carved by a Yupik high school student.

Moses Pungowiyi (Yupik), 1965; walrus ivory, paint; 2.6" x 1 " x 1". 25/6458

Photo by NMAI Staff

Siberian Yupik people have inhabited what they call Sivuqaq Island in the Bering Sea for at least two millennia. They are thought to have come from what is now Russia, where many Yupik still live. Today, this island, which is also known as St. Lawrence Island, is part of Alaska. The 1,100 Siberian Yupik people who live there (whose name is spelled Yupik rather than Yup’ik as in the rest of Alaska) depend on subsistence hunting of seals, polar bears, caribou, whales and fish. While protected from commercial hunting, walrus supply Alaska Native peoples with not only meat but also skins for clothing as well as bone and tusks that they carve into jewelry and sculptures, such as this polar bear created by a Yupik student named Moses Pungowiyi.

During the 1960s, Pungowiyi was a 10th grader at the Chemawa Indian School in Oregon. Like so many Native children from the late 1800s and into the mid-20th century, he may have been forced to leave his community to attend this government boarding school. Such institutions were designed to wipe out any trace of their Indigenous students’ cultures. Yet Pungowiyi showcased his traditional carving skills when he made this bear from a piece of ivory sent to him by his parents in 1965 to sell at his school’s art market. There, Edward Malin—a regional representative from the Indian Arts and Crafts Board (IACB) who had visited the school to attend a traditional dance performance—discovered the bear and bought it for only $5.

The U.S. Department of the Interior had established the IACB in 1935 to foster and develop Native arts. In 2000, the U.S. Congress appointed the NMAI to house the IACB’s headquarters collection of 6,300 works, including this bear. NMAI Curator Anya Montiel interviewed Malin about his IACB work in 2014. “It is not typical for an IACB specialist to buy from children at an Indian boarding school,” she said. “Malin explained that he hoped the IACB would have an exhibition on art made by Native children and teens. Yet that never happened.” So because of a chance encounter, this small bear can now be appreciated by many. It traveled a long way to tell its story.

Authors

Anne Bolen

Anne Bolen is executive editor of American Indian magazine.

Answering a Beckoning Call

ThorneLE — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 21:23:54 +0000

Collection Stories

Answering a Beckoning Call

From Issue: Summer 2024 / Vol. 25 No. 2

by Anne Bolen

Daphne Odjig’s life was as eclectic, transitional and colorful as her art. She was born September 11, 1919, on the Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve on Manitoulin Island (Lake Huron), Ontario, of a Potawatomi father and an English mother. In 1932, she contracted rheumatic fever and during the next three years that she spent recuperating, her grandfather, a carver of tombstones and monuments, encouraged her to draw.

In 1945, she married her first husband, a farmer, and moved to British Colombia. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, she began to use oil paints and dabble in cubism and abstract expressionism. But only after her sister entered one of her paintings in a juried show in 1962 and she was subsequently elected as a member of the British Columbia Federation of Artists did her art career take flight. She produced a great range of works, from pen and ink drawings to watercolor and acrylic paintings.

In this Woodlands-style diptych on display at the NMAI beginning in June, a Thunderbird transforms into a human woman to marry a man, who then must later become a Thunderbird himself to be with her.

“Beckoning Call (Thunderbird Woman),” Daphne Odjig (Odawa (Ottawa)/Potawatomi); acrylic paint on canvas; 64.3” x 36.3” x 2.4” 27/0644

Photo by NMAI Staff

She began to paint in the Woodlands style, which through vibrant colors relays Indigenous stories. These often are tales of transformation, such as this 1990 diptych she entitled “Beckoning Call (Thunderbird Woman)” in the National Museum of the American Indian collection. Odjig wrote that these paintings tell the story of a Thunderbird who changes into a woman and marries a man on Earth. But then a jealous rival murders her, so she returns to her Thunderbird form in the sky. Her husband goes to the peak of a mountain to pay tribute to her and discovers her alive in the clouds. She takes him to a medicine man who transforms her husband into a Thunderbird so he may join her.

Odjig was “one of the few women artists who worked in the Woodlands style,” said former Associate Director for Museum Research and Scholarship David Penney, who helped acquire the stunning work. As Penney said, her paintings appear transitory, to be “shifting before our eyes, combining shapes, colors and figures.”

Odjig was one of most prominent First Nations artists in Canada. Among her many achievements were creating Canada’s first Indigenous-run art gallery, being granted a Doctor of Letters from multiple universities and receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from Okanagan Arts Awards in 2008. She died in 2016 at the age of 97.

Yet through her art, Odjig lives on. On the National Gallery of Canada’s website, she said, “I see my paintings as a celebration of life.”

Authors

Anne Bolen

Anne Bolen is executive editor of American Indian magazine.

A Monumental Statement

ThorneLE — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 17:30:43 +0000

Collection Stories

A Monumental Statement

From Issue: Spring 2024 / Vol. 25 No. 1

by Ashley Minner Jones

In 2019, quilt squares spelling out the words “YOU ARE NOT ALONE” blanketed the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It was the first national memorial created for and by survivors of sexual and intimate partner violence. Such violence is prevalent through many communities, yet certain populations experience it far more often than others. Studies have shown that four out of five American Indian and Alaska Native women have suffered such violence, and thousands of Indigenous people in the United States and Canada are murdered or are declared missing each year.

The final display of the Monument Quilt was on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in 2019.

Nate Gregorio

Monument Quilt Block 370 (detail), anonymous artists, 2015; cloth, plastic sheeting, acrylic paint, thread, metal grommets, ink, felt-tipped marker and glue; 93” x 93”. 27/0706.

Courtesy of FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture

Monument Quilt Block 370 (detail), anonymous artists, 2015; cloth, plastic sheeting, acrylic paint, thread, metal grommets, ink, felt-tipped marker and glue; 93” x 93”. 27/0706.

Courtesy of FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture

Monument Quilt Block 370 (detail), anonymous artists, 2015; cloth, plastic sheeting, acrylic paint, thread, metal grommets, ink, felt-tipped marker and glue; 93” x 93”. 27/0706.

Courtesy of FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture

Monument Quilt Block 370 (detail), anonymous artists, 2015; cloth, plastic sheeting, acrylic paint, thread, metal grommets, ink, felt-tipped marker and glue; 93” x 93”. 27/0706.

Courtesy of FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture

This Monument Quilt is a project of the artist and activist collective named FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture. Artists and violence survivors Rebecca Nagle (Cherokee Nation) and Hannah Brancato said they founded FORCE in 2010 to “create space for survivors to heal in community.” The project also “makes room for understanding rape as a political issue,” said Brancato.

From 2013 to 2019, FORCE led quilt-making workshops around the United States, many in partnership with Native communities. They gathered more than 3,000 stories of survivors, told through 4-by-4-foot quilt blocks that were created using traditional sewing techniques such as appliqué and made from materials such as paint, permanent markers, ribbons and buttons, sewn onto a plastic backing.

While the quilt was being completed, sections of it were displayed on football fields, college campuses, prison yards, in public parks, American Indian reservations and other outdoor spaces 49 times across the United States and Mexico. In 2019, the entire Monument Quilt was displayed on the National Mall. More than 50,000 people visited it, and hundreds of thousands engaged with the project online.

The quilt sent a powerful message that lingers long after it was disassembled. FORCE is now archiving its 750 blocks in cultural institutions around the world. A grant from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum enabled the National Museum of the American Indian to acquire 10 sections of the quilt made up of four quilt squares each in 2022. As Nagle commented, “The history of genocide, rape and cultural decimation against Native peoples cannot be ignored.”

Authors

Ashley Minner Jones

Ashley Minner Jones (Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina) helped the National Museum of the American Indian acquire these quilt pieces while serving as an assistant curator for the museum.

Beauty That Rings True

ThorneLE — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Collection Stories

Beauty That Rings True

From Issue: Winter 2023 / Vol. 24 No. 4

by Anya Montiel

What does sound look like? For Jontay Kahm, it is his sculptural “Bell Bird” dress. He named his creation after the world’s loudest bird—the male white bellbird, which has calls that sound like a bell that can ring up to 125 decibels or the equivalent of the noise of a jackhammer. To give the appearance of being engulfed by sound, he attached 800 dyed-grey goose feathers in undulating waves around the dress’s shoulders and waist.

Jontay Kahm named his dress “Bell Bird” after the world’s loudest bird. Emulating cascading waves of sound, 800 dyed-grey goose feathers ripple around the dress’ shoulders and waist.

“Bell Bird,” by Jontay Kahm, 2022; felt, satin, goose feathers and glue; 42.5” x 35.4” x 23.6”. 27/0716.

Photo by NMAI Staff

Jontay Kahm is a Plains Cree fashion designer from the Mosquito First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Photo by Jason S. Ordaz, Institute of American Indian Arts

Kahm is a Plains Cree fashion designer from the Mosquito First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada. He became interested in fashion through the videos and concerts of Lady Gaga, which he said, “opened a door to a world I didn’t know existed.” Kahm told Vogue writer Christian Allaire (Ojibwe) her video “Bad Romance” had a profound effect on him because “as a kid from the rez with no internet, I was obsessed.” He admired the imagination and theatricality of her outfits. He said, “I wanted to copy all of the designs she was wearing.” He then learned about avant-garde designers Alexander McQueen and Iris van Herpen, who continue to inspire him.

The 27-year-old said he likes “designing for myself” as well as creating the fashion he would like to see. His outfits often seem otherworldly: they pop with vivid colors and voluminous shapes. Yet he also incorporates his Indigenous culture into his designs, adding aspects from powwow regalia such as feathers, fringe and ribbons. “Bell Bird,” completed in 2022, is the second feather dress he created.

This past year was a whirlwind for Kahm. In spring of 2023, he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in studio arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and in the fall, he enrolled in a Master of Fine Arts program at Parsons School of Design in New York. Kahm also debuted his first full collection, “Regalian Bodies,” in August at the Santa Fe Indian Market fashion show. There he presented 17 signature looks in bold colors and layers of fringe and feathers, including a multitiered feathered wedding gown with a feather bustle.

Kahm is thrilled by the increased attention that Indigenous fashion has been receiving in the press during the last few years. He also appreciates the opportunity to be a part of it and acknowledges that he has been given a running start. ”I want to create the unimaginable and dream the unthinkable,” Kahm said. “I believe the gift I have is from God, and I feel it's urgent for me to share it with the world.”

Authors

Anya Montiel

Anya Montiel is a curator at the National Museum of the American Indian.

Color in Motion

ThorneLE — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 19:30:00 +0000

Collection Stories

Color in Motion

From Issue: Fall 2023 / Vol. 24 No. 3

by Anne Bolen and Rebecca Head Trautmann

This past May, the art world lost one of its most colorful masters. Benjamin Harjo Jr. (Absentee Shawnee/Seminole of Oklahoma) was known for his innovative use of abstract design and vibrant hues.

“Dreaming in Color” is one of 10 abstract, expressionistic paintings, drawings and prints by Benjamin Harjo Jr. in the National Museum of the American Indian’s collection.

Paper, paint, graphite;
26” x 33.5”. 26/3908

Photo by NMAI Staff

Benjamin Harjo Jr. (here in his studio in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) was inspired by the interplay between abstract design and color.

Photo courtesy of University of Oklahoma

Harjo graduated from the Institute of American Indian Arts in 1968 and then enrolled at Oklahoma State University (OSU) to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts. The Vietnam War interrupted his plans, however. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1969 and served for three years.

When he returned to OSU to complete his degree, “He was hungry to get on with his life,” said his art professor Marty Avrett. “He was serious about his painting. But he would also recognize it as being playful and do whimsical things in his works.”

Indeed, his paintings such as “Dreaming in Color” in the National Museum of the American Indian collection have an energy created by the interplay between vibrant blocks of color, hard lines and abstract figures that seems to propel these visual jigsaw puzzles through their stark backgrounds. Even the myriad of two-dimensional shapes that make up the figures in his black and white drawings appear to move as you gaze at them. The effect, said Avrett, is “flat shapes that dance across the canvas.”

The artist’s colorful palette and vibrant geometric patterns evoke Seminole patchwork traditions that he then transformed into something distinctly his own. Native American figures often were the centerpiece in his art. His connection to his American Indian heritage was the “thread woven through all of those decades of work,” Avrett said. Yet, “In the end, during his past 15 or 20 years or so, his style was recognizable. ... It was transcendent.”

Harjo earned numerous honors for his work, including Featured Artist at the National Museum of the American Indian’s Aspen Benefit in 1992 and 1993, the 1993 Heard Museum’s 34th Annual Featured Artist award and Best of Division and First Place at the 2009 Santa Fe Indian Market. Harjo and his wife, Barbara, also served on the Art Advisory Council that helped establish the OSU Museum of Art in 2011.

Since his death at the age of 77, many have reflected on not only Harjo’s legacy but also his kindness and generosity. Avrett said of his friend, “He had a wonderful sense of humor. He was always laughing.”

Authors

Anne Bolen and Rebecca Head Trautmann

Anne Bolen is American Indian magazine’s Executive Editor. Rebecca Head Trautmann is an assistant curator at the National Museum of the American Indian.