Art is the Seed: Contemporary Native American Female Art

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Featuring a selection of nearly 30 works across mediums and decades, Art is the Seed explores how historic Native American crafts are the cultural “seeds” inspiring many Native American women artists’ works today. The exhibition features contemporary artworks by Native American artists Cara Romero, Marla Allison, Sarah Sense, Natani Notah, Darby Raymond-Overstreet and Leah Mata Fragua, in addition to historic artifacts loaned by Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery. Honoring and building upon the artistic legacy of their foremothers, the artists’ works fuse historic and culturally-specific symbols with 21st century ideas and art forms, including performance art, photography, sculpture, painting and collage. The artists’ works are explorations into what it means to be a modern, Indigenous woman today. Through their art, the artists forge new ways of being Native American in the modern world and affirm that Indigenous culture is both ever-evolving and here to stay. The exhibition is curated by Alyssa Travis, Chief Curator, Tucson Desert Art Museum.

For generations, Native American women’s art has largely been ignored by the established art community, including situations where women’s work has been signed by men, further pushing women artists into silence. This exhibition takes a powerful tradition of female artists and speaks out with modern expression.

The women artists on display take traditional craft arts from their heritage and transform them with contemporary twists to give voice to the multi- generational women artist community. Curator Alyssa Travis stated, “We are honored to exhibit such a powerful selection of artworks from Indigenous artists, past and present. The contemporary works on display reflect the artists’ personal attitudes towards what it means to be a contemporary Indigenous woman today.” 

Image: Ty, 2017. Cara Romero.