Sandra Hale Schulman
Special to ICT
The latest: Bronze figures tell Pueblo tales, a top designer shines on the runway and in a museum exhibition, and haunting new music from a classical activist
ART: Poeh artist designs museum display and gallery
One of the highlights of the Pathways Indigenous Arts Festival in Santa Fe during Indian Market weekend was a booth by Taos Pueblo clay and bronze sculptor Roxanne Swentzell, whose distinctive figures represent families and personal interactions with a full range of humorous emotions and irrepressible moods.
Swentzell had some small bronzes on display for sale at the festival, but the full range of her work can be seen in a permanent display at the nearby Poeh Cultural Center, which includes a museum, expansive grounds, and a gallery of her work in a circular structure called the Tower Gallery.
Swentzell started sculpting at a very early age and attended the Institute of American Indian Arts for classes. She had her first one-person show at age 17.
The museum includes a 1600-square-foot permanent exhibition, “Nah Poeh Meng,” which translates from Tewa to mean “The Continuous Path,” that portrays Pueblo history from within the Pueblo worldview but also offers both Native and non-Native visitors a chance to experience Pueblo stories through art, word, and history.
It is divided into six rooms with a cave-like entrance. Each room is based on an era that explores the tribe’s history with contemporary figure art by Swentzell and painted murals by Marcellus Medina, Zia Pueblo. The exhibit includes historical reproductions of rooms and dwellings, and traditional and contemporary accounts that convey the Pueblo view of their history. It’s a walk-through diorama, and no cases or glass separate the visitor from the art.
Swentzell has shown works throughout the world, and has permanent pieces in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, the British Art Museum, the Museum of Wellington in New Zealand, The Heard Museum, the Denver Art Museum, and the Santa Fe Convention Center. She has won many awards at the Santa Fe Indian Market and Heard Museum Art Guild, along with being given the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.
“Happy to be here sharing my art,” Swentzell told ICT at her booth, “and hope people see my other work at the museum.”
DESIGN: Fashion designer Okuma featured at museum
Jamie Okuma, Luiseño/Shoshone-Bannock, was one of the main designers featured at the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts fashion show at the Santa Fe Convention Center on Sunday, Aug. 20, during Indian Market.
A new member of the prestigious Council of Fashion Designers of America, Okuma wowed the crowd with her sleek, bold, graphic outfits that featured matching leggings and jackets and capes.
Her work can also be seen at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe on Museum Hill as part of the exhibit, “California Stars/Huivaniūs Pütsiv,” which in the Chemehuevi language means “stars with us/around us.”
The show honors the illumination and inspiration Golden State artists have provided in influencing the Native contemporary art field for decades.
“California Stars/Huivaniūs Pütsiv” creates a dialog between iconic and lesser-known works from the Wheelwright Museum’s permanent collection, with important loans and new works devised especially for the exhibition.
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A black-and-white ensemble from Okuma has an almost uniform-like elegance while an intricately beaded backpack with imposing spikes and beadwork surprises with contrast and intent.
A video loop on a large screen showcases Okuma’s fashion runway show that featured the jacket.
The exhibit runs through Jan. 14, 2024.
MUSIC: Haunting new music from classical activist
As a classically trained composer, two-spirit songwriter and pan-Indigenous activist from Tobique First Nation in Eastern Canada, Jeremy Dutcher will be returning this fall with his first new music since winning the Polaris and Juno prizes.
He will be performing for an NPR Tiny Desk segment, and collaborating with Yo-Yo Ma, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Beverly Glenn Copeland.
A moving exploration of contemporary Indigeneity, queerness, and the space between the two, Dutcher’s sophomore LP, “Motewolonuwok,” will be released Oct. 6 on Secret City Records.
Featuring Dutcher’s first songs written in English, “Motewolonuwok” sings directly to White settlers to tell of his community’s stories of grief, resilience, and emergence.
The lead single, “Ancestors Too Young,” is sung from the perspective of a parent devastated by the loss of a daughter. It features guitar squalls and jittery drumbeats, lilting strings and solemn pauses.
The lyrics are heart-wrenching.
And if I go too, will I see the ones we’ve lost?
Life is over before it’s begun
Ancestors too young
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