Fritz Scholder

American, 1937 -  2005

Beyond his original fame for having “broken the mold” in the way Native Americans are portrayed in fine art beginning in the 1960s that departed radically from traditional, stereotypical depictions of the mythic Indian and instead portrayed the reality of the Native American’s actual place in contemporary American society, Fritz Scholder’s contribution to American art also lies in profound, metaphysical interrogation of the Indigenous subject. Moving beyond the constraints of objective representation, Scholder employed a deliberate alchemy of figurative distortion, transforming the human form into a vessel for psychological and philosophical inquiry. His work bridges the liminal space between the known and the unknown, exploring the tension between cultural myth and personal reality. By imbuing subjects with a raw, visceral presence—drawing upon the emotional intensity of Expressionism—Scholder challenged the viewer through his art to confront the multifaceted realities of Indigenous life, as well as human identity more generally, asserting  it as an evolving, complex, and unvarnished truth.

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith

American, 1940 -  2025

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s practice functions as a powerful form of historical revisionism. She became known in her work for what she referred to as her role as a “trickster”— a sacred shape-shifting role rooted in Indigenous lore and modernism alike—whereby she constructs dense, multi-layered visual records challenging the erasure of Native experiences within the national discourse. Through a rigorous synthesis of tribal knowledge, canonical iconography, and commercial ephemera, she creates a platform for both social commentary and environmental discourse. Smith’s work asserts the primacy of Native narratives, meticulously deconstructing imposed viewpoints to elevate the Indigenous perspective within the broader canon of American modernism.

Emmi Whitehorse 

Emmi Whitehorse (b. 1957, Crownpoint, New Mexico) is a celebrated contemporary painter and printmaker with a successful career spanning more than four decades. A member of the Navajo Nation, she currently lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Whitehorse is well-known for her serene, ethereal abstract paintings, which function as meditative landscapes rooted in an Indigenous and feminist worldview. Her work is fundamentally about her relationship to the land, drawing inspiration from the Southwestern landscape. She creates compositions using a personal vocabulary of line, color, and shape, employing layered atmospheric grounds of vaporous oil wash and intricate linear forms in Conté pencil, pastel, and chalk. This process translates the structural complexity of weaving she witnessed her grandmother practice, echoing the optical intrigue of a deftly woven Navajo rug. Her artistic philosophy is centered on the Navajo concept of hózhó—‘walking in beauty’—which seeks to maintain a harmonious balance of life with nature.