Native Arts Collective

Welcome to our collection of artworks and information about Native American art and artists

"Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children." -- Sitting Bull

Welcome to our new website for promoting and teaching about contemporary native american art and artists. This site was created to bring the work of the many talented native american and first nations artists to a wider audience, as well as to be an educational resource. Our goal is to help artists to make a living creating art, by exposing their work to more people and educating those visitors about the amazing depth of native culture, history and artistic traditions.

We only offer work that was created by Native American artists, following both the spirit and the letter of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990

We are beginning to build out our site now, starting with biographical and culture information about the artists we most admire, and their work. We're just barely getting started, so if you have somehow found your way here, please check back soon and we'll have much more to offer you. We badly need your feedback! Please email us at nativeartscollective@gmail.com.

Melissa Melero

Culture:

Paiute

Primary Medium(s):

Painting

Melissa Melero was born in San Francisco, CA in 1974 and spent most of her childhood living near Reno, Nevada. She is a Northern Paiute enrolled with the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe located in Fallon, Nevada. Melissa holds a BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Fine Arts from Portland State University, Portland, OR. After spending many years in the southwest and northwest part of the country, Melissa returned to Reno, NV, working part time in arts administration and as a professional artist. She exhibits at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, NM and in select galleries throughout the U.S. Her current influences are imagery found in the Nevada landscape, petroglyphs, beadwork, and basketry from the Native tribes of Nevada and California. “I have the constant desire to create these images in my head and in the process these works mesh into organic, caught in time objects of history and personal development.”

http://www.melissamelero.com

Clarissa Rizal

Culture:

Primary Medium(s):

“I view myself as a contemporary traditionalist, creating works in the “now” branching from traditional art forms, always acknowledging my Tlingit heritage. The Future will protect my work if it “feeds” others, inspires others." - Clarissa Rizal

Clarissa Rizal, is a Tlingit artist and Cultural facilitator. Her work has been featured in prestigious galleries including the Stonington Gallery and the Quintana Gallery. Over the course of her career she has produced work of the highest quality in the form of carvings, silk screen prints, paintings, collages, woven baskets and robes, button robes, beadwork, and regalia design. She teaches weaving workshops, and is active in non-profit activities to promote the arts. She is presently pursuing a BFA from the Institute of American Indian Art.

Jim Hart

Culture:

Primary Medium(s):

Jim Hart (Haida) began his distinguished career in 1979 at the age of 27. Beginning in 1980 he worked for the great Haida carver, Bill Reid and assisted on a number of Reid’s works including The Raven and the First Men. He has also spent time working with renowned carver and print maker, Robert Davidson. Hart has since gone on to create monumental totem poles and other works that have garnered him a wide and appreciative audience at several public institutions and in private collections around the world. His family has figured prominently in Haida leadership and art, and he now serves as hereditary chief. He carries the name of his great-great-grandfather Charles Edenshaw. His latest work, which he describes as “a tribute to salmon,” will be on display at the Vancouver Art Gallery through 2013.

Norman G. Jackson

Culture:

Tlingit

Primary Medium(s):

Carving

Jewelry

Norman G. Jackson is of the Tongass Tlingit of southeast Alaska and was born in Ketchikan, Alaska. His lineage is from his mother who is of the Tongass Tlingit Kaats Hit Bear House of southeast Alaska. His father is Kaagwaantaan Tlingit of Klukwan, Alaska.
Norman studied at the Kitanmax School of Northwest Coast Indian Art in Hazelton, B.C. and received advance training in design and carving. He also received training in metal engraving from the Totem Heritage Center in Ketchikan.

He is a recognized Master Artist in metal engraving by the Alaska State Council on the Arts Master Apprentice Grant and has received numerous honors for his excellence in wood carving. He apprenticed with Master Artists, Dempsey Bob and Phil Janze, and has been invited numerous symposiums on Northwest Coast Native carving. Norman's work is held in major collections, and his work has appeared in exhibits in the US and abroad.

Attention Native Artists!

The Native Art & Cultures Foundation will be accepting fellowship applications until May 3rd. Awards of up to $20,000 are being considered for artists working in dance, filmmaking, literature, music, traditional arts, and visual arts. All submitted work samples must be “current and evolving.” You can visit the NACF website to learn more about their foundation, and how to apply for this wonderful opportunity. Have fun, and best of luck!

Spiritual Lowriders: A Couple Thoughts on the Work of Dylan Miner

"My people will sleep for 100 years," prophesied Métis leader Louis Riel before his Canadian execution in 1885. "And when they awake, it will be the artists who give them back their spirit."

Recently I was having a conversation with another Rez mom. Her son is the same age as my daughter, and she lives in the tribal housing project where I used to live. We were discussing her recent decision to move off-rez. “I just want to, for once, be able to buy him a bicycle and not have to see him all heart broken when it gets stolen and found completely trashed in the driveway a week later,” she said. This conversation instantly rose to the forefront of my mind when I saw the images of the beautiful golden bicycle in the A&E slideshow of Indian Country Today (online) last week.

Since then I’ve spent a lot of time considering the role of art: Fine art as a luxury item; art as a form of expression against mindless, soulless consumerism; art as a means of transcending the mundane and tapping into the extraordinary that is always at hand, and sharing it with an appreciative audience… I find myself thinking about art a lot, (whether there is a golden bicycle to consider or not). I rarely come to any solid conclusions, but I always appreciate the questions that are raised by the considerations evoked by a piece like Miner’s.

I hope you will read the Indian Country Today piece about his work and come to your own considerations about the beautiful possibility and likelihood that it will indeed be the artists who are our salvation.

Tony Hunt

Culture:

Kwakwaka'wakw

Primary Medium(s):

Carving

Tony Hunt (born 1942) is a Canadian First Nations artist of Kwakwaka'wakw ancestry noted for his work carving totem poles.

He was born in 1942 at the Kwakwaka'wakw community of Alert Bay, British Columbia. He received early training from his maternal grandfather Mungo Martin. He is also a descendant of the renowned Native ethnologist George Hunt.

After Martin's death in 1962, Hunt became assistant carver to his father Henry Hunt at Thunderbird Park in Victoria, B.C. His brothers, Stanley Hunt and Richard Hunt, are also professional carvers. In 1984 he carved a replacement totem pole, called Kwanusila (Thunderbird), for one his ancestor George Hunt had made for the people of Chicago.

In 1970 he opened the Arts of the Raven Gallery in Victoria.

http://tonyhuntclothing.com/
2010 Recipient of the Order of British Columbia
Youtube: Chief Tony Hunt at First Nations Artist Forum at AGGV, June 16, 2011

Bunky Echo-Hawk

Culture:

Yakima

Primary Medium(s):

Painting

Poetry

Bunky Echo-Hawk is a multi-talented artist whose work spans both media and lifestyle. A graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts, he is a ﬁne artist, graphic designer, photographer, writer and a non-proﬁt professional. Bunky is a traditional singer and dancer of the Pawnee Nation and an enrolled member of the Yakama Nation.

Grand Procession: Contemporary Artistic Visions of American Indians

The Denver Art Museum has published a book documenting their exhibition of large-scale Plains and Plateau "dolls" or sculptural figures from the collection of Charles and Valerie Diker. It contains amazing photographs and short essays that provide context for each doll, the artists who created the work and background information on the clothing traditions portrayed by the dolls.

A common sentiment that each artist expresses is that doll making provides a venue to connect with cultural histories and continue artistic traditions into the present. According to Joyce Growing Thunder, “Doing this work is really important for me because it’s helping my ancestors to carry along the culture and traditions” (26). Through their dolls, the artists are keeping traditional Plateau and Plains clothing traditions and crafting techniques alive and helping to maintain distinctive tribal aesthetics.

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