After decades of “staying within the lines” of what was considered traditional Native art, Indigenous artists are increasingly moving into the contemporary art space. Whether creating fine-art photography, performing, public space exhibits or cutting-edge shows, these Native artists are delving into more diverse crafts, following their own muses.
Cara Romero: Envisioning the Native world through a lens
Cara Romero was long fascinated by life and the world as seen through a lens. “Growing up in the Chemehuevi Indian Reservation, I think I was always the person that was interested in the family archive of photos, the shoebox of photos, the scrapbooks,” she said. “I was always the person who had disposable cameras.” Romero split her childhood years between the Chemehuevi lands on the California side of the Colorado River Valley and Houston, where she realized how little the average person knew about Indian Country. But while pursuing a degree in cultural anthropology at the University of Houston, Romero rediscovered her love of imagery. “I took darkroom photography as an elective and I had one of those instructors who changed my life,” she said. Bill Thomas was focused on content, narrative and storytelling, elements that Romero possessed in abundance. “I understood really early on the power of the medium and it was just kind of love at first experience,” she said. “I never wanted to do anything else.” Armed with a variety of specialized visual tools gleaned from university programs, Romero began telling contemporary stories of Native people. “It just seemed like everything began to coalesce as a more mature Chemehuevi woman, and then I became a mom.” The experience of giving birth to a new life — she has three kids with her husband, Diego Romero, a potter from Cochiti Pueblo — led to a key life choice: “I got sober.” She described the move as a commitment to always make art as well as part of a healthy life and spirituality. That also began Romero’s current journey toward staged imaginative photographs. “I wasn’t able to travel, and being beholden as a mom, I couldn’t disappear to the darkroom,” Romero said. But her visual illustrations, using friends and family as models, have struck a chord in audiences. “It was like the universe just saying you're absolutely moving in the right direction,” Romero said. She has created a visual series that opens a digital window into Indigenous lives and lifeways. “First American Girl” recasts the popular line of dolls. In “Indigenous Futurisms,” Romero examines the role Native people can play in influencing the Earth’s future. In the portrait “Last Indian Market,” Romero evokes the imagery of da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” to bring together some of Indian Country’s acclaimed artists along with one of her most iconic characters, Buffalo Man. Romero is among the few Native people who have opened and operated a high-end
art gallery . “As a Native gallery owner and somebody that has a space to share, I think it's just going to come across as a beautiful telling of stories from within our culture,” Romero said.
Anna Tsouhlarakis: Installing peeks into Native America
Native artist Anna Tsouhlarakis aspired to push the boundaries of “ways of making.” Tsouhlarakis, who’s an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, was raised by a single father, Navajo silversmith Naveek Tsouhlarakis. She is also related to the Muscogee Creek and Greek peoples. “He pushed the boundaries a bit and made work that was not necessarily seen as traditional but is gorgeous work from gold, silver, turquoise and semi-precious gems,” she said. “I took his scrap wood when he was a contractor during the day and making sculptures out of those.” But Tsouhlarakis never thought of herself as an artist until college, where art history classes showed her that Native art, like African American and Latin American art, incorporated new media and new materials. In the late 1990s, Tsouhlarakis grew interested in video, installation and performance arts. At the time, few Native artists were engaged in these art forms, she said. “But I wanted to be one of those Native artists that's helping push the boundaries of ways of making.” She was also pushing against the idea of the beauty, precision and perfection her dad’s art exemplified. “That’s why I don't try to necessarily make things that are perfect, you know, and precise,” she said. But Tsouhlarakis has continued to hold Navajo beliefs and ways of seeing the world close to her. “The Native way of being and seeing the world is integral,” she said. Although her work, which includes huge text pieces, multimedia sculptures, video and performance pieces, may appear different from traditional Navajo motifs, she said her artistic foundation is based on Navajo teachings and experiences. She said her work speaks to both Native and non-Native viewers. “It creates a real connection for Native people who read the text pieces and are like, ‘Wow, I know that.’” Although some of her work relates to how Native people interact with each other, at least one exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery took a more somber note.
Portrait of an Indigenous Womxn [Removed] commemorated murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls. Like other Indigenous artists, Tsouhlarakis balances her work as an artist and assistant professor of art practices at the University of Colorado, Boulder, with parenting her own three kids, ages 10, 12 and 14. “For me, it's really important that I'm an artist and a professor and a mother because it seems so rare,” she said. “I feel like a lot of people, especially young women feel like they can't necessarily have kids and be successful.”
Joe Baker: Restoring art to his ancestors' home
Joe Baker was called back to his ancestors’ land, a land where he wasn’t born. Baker, a member of the Delaware Tribe of Indians, one of three Lenape tribes in the U.S., was born in Oklahoma, half a continent away from Lenapehoking. The traditional lands of the Lenape, or People, encompassed modern-day New York City and much of southern New York state, eastern Pennsylvania, a sliver of the Delaware River and the entire state of New Jersey. “It wasn't like I didn't set out to be an artist, per se,” he said, ”it just seemed to be a natural expression for me. A journey.” Art also helped him through the sometimes difficult situation of growing up in a tribal community in Oklahoma. Some of those difficulties were depicted in a recent exhibition of his paintings at
Idyllwild Arts School in California, where among other painful incidents, he was left behind in freezing weather miles from home by his brother in a malicious prank. After serving in the U.S. Air Force and obtaining two university degrees, Baker embarked on a career as a painter, curator and educator. He’s known for organizing exhibits that beat down the walls of what many consider to be “Native” art, mixing artists like Tsouhlarakis, Kent Monkman, Fausto Fernandez and Steven Yazzie. Returning to his roots started with a simple linen shoulder bag adorned with beads. Baker recreated the Lenape bandolier bag to help revitalize one of his community’s art forms. Then he set out to renew his community by moving home to where his ancestors, many of whom were noted Lenape chiefs and captains, served the people. In 2009, Baker, along with fellow Delaware Tribe members Curtis Zunigha and Hadrien Coumans co-founded the Lenape Center in New York City, to plant a seed of rematriation for a tribe that has been scattered across the continent over several removals. The nonprofit offers a variety of programs including exhibitions and performances to continue the Lenape presence. Baker continues to restore the Lenape ways to his traditional homeland. He brought carefully hoarded Lenape corn seeds to his home north of New York City, where he planted them to renew another connection with Lenapehoking. He suffered one setback: Local bears raided his fields, taking only the Lenape corn. “They knew which was the best corn,” Baker said during a traditional feast held at Idyllwild.
Debra Krol reports on Indigenous communities at the confluence of climate, culture and commerce in Arizona and the Intermountain West. Reach Krol at . Follow her on X @debkrol .
Coverage of Indigenous issues at the intersection of climate, culture and commerce is supported by the Catena Foundation .
