Diego Romero
This year was the 92nd annual Santa Fe Indian Market but my first. I was more interested in meeting the artists than shopping and I was not disappointed. I especially like Indian work that is transformative and contemporary so the first booth I headed to was that of Diego Romero. His work is humorous and a mashup of visual culture and cultural traditions. The piece above on the left is his take on the creation story and the one he is holding in the photograph below was part of a series on Wonder Woman (he loves comic books).
Diego Romero
Virgil Ortiz
Another favorite of mine is Virgil Ortiz, from Cochiti Pueblo. I have followed his career for a long time - he started with the Cochiti figurative tradition (Helen Cordero, the first to make storyteller figures, was from Cochiti) but made his figures contemporary with tattoo-like designs. His art has expanded beyond pottery into photography and fashion design.
The Market presented the best of jewelry, pottery, paintings, sculpture, textiles, beadwork, baskets, and fashion design from across North America. Here you see Jody Webster's portrait of her daughter and her daughter. Webster was named a SWAIA/Santa Fe Art Institute Residency Fellow.
Throughout the week of the Market, there was a great emphasis on including young Indian artists, especially in clothing design and film. Ehren Kee Natay, shown here in his booth, is a musician, dancer, actor, artist, and designer.
We attended a discussion at the Museum of Contemporary Native American Art about a design collaboration between young Indian designers and the company Paul Frank (you may recognize the monkey!). Apparently Paul Frank had developed a line of products based on stereotypes of Indian designs. When the fact that no Native Americans were included in this process was pointed out to them, they fell on their swords, apologized, and developed a new line with the help of Indian designers, including Ehren Kee Natay.
We also met a friendly group of artists, teachers, and students representing the Alaska Native Heritage Center. They promised to write an article for SchoolArts about their adventures on the trip!
The streets around the Plaza and leading up to the Cathedral were full of booths of all kinds of Indian-made objects from tribes and nations far and wide.
Not everyone was dressed up as much as this man. He must have been hot in all those hides.
This is a hand-made drum set, sporting a well-deserved blue ribbon. Prizes were given in quite a few categories.
Another beautiful day in Santa Fe!
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