In 2020, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., purchased her iconic mixed-media painting I See Red: Target (1992), making it the first painting by a Native American artist acquired by the museum. She has been commissioned to create a number of public artworks, including the terrazzo floor design of the Denver Airport a mile-long sidewalk history trail in Seattle and a memorial at the Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco, which was once the site of an Ohlone Indian burial ground. This innate visual talent can be seen clearly in the way Smith appropriates pop cultural imagery and combines it with her own personal and political symbolism. Her Native name, “Quick-to-See,” was bestowed by her Shoshone grandmother as a sign of the artist’s early ability to identify the world around her. A Hunkpapa drum becomes a Mark Rothko painting ledger book symbols become Cy Twomblys a Naskaspi bag is a Paul Klee a Blackfoot robe, Agnes Martin beadwork color is Josef Albers a parfleche is Frank Stella.”Ĭonsidered an esteemed elder in the Native art world, Smith has been creating her uniquely complex abstract paintings and prints since the 1970s. With this I make parallels from the old world to contemporary art. In a 1982 interview with the Arizona Republic, Salish artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith said, “I look at line, form, color, texture, in contemporary art as well as viewing old Indian artifacts the same way. With major museum exhibitions, gallery shows, institutional leadership, sold-out art fair booths, and new Native-led arts initiatives like Forge Project and Ma’s House, we are currently seeing a wave of recognition for contemporary Native American artists.įrom art world veterans who have been using their work to advocate for Native rights for decades to a younger generation of artists who are using traditional techniques to address contemporary issues, here is a list of some of the most influential Native American artists living and working today. From the appointment of high-ranking government officials like Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, to the centering of Indigenous stewardship in the fight for climate resilience, to the popularity of hit television shows and podcasts like Reservation Dogs and The Red Nation-at long last, Native voices are finally being heard on their own terms. Over the past few years, Native Americans have become increasingly visible within the cultural mainstream in the United States.
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