Past Exhibitions

Margarete Bagshaw: Breaking the Rules
February 12, 2012 through December 30, 2012
Margarete Bagshaw: Breaking the Rules features more than 30 paintings (some on sculpted wood panels), bronze and clay as wall art and multi-colored ceramic vessels that demonstrate the breadth and multi-dimensionality of Margarete Bagshaw's work.

Creative Spark! : The Life and Art of Tony Da
February 13, 2011 through December 31, 2011
Creative Spark: The Life and Art of Tony Da is the artist’s first comprehensive museum retrospective. On view will be the largest group of Da’s paintings and pottery ever gathered in one place. The exhibition opens at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture on February 13, 2011 running through December 31, 2011.

Huichol Art and Culture: Balancing the World
April 11, 2010 through February 12, 2012
For the first time, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology presents a significant collection of Huichol art from the early part of the last century in Huichol Art and Culture: Balancing the World. The exhibition opens at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture April 11, 2010 and  has now been extended to run through February 12, 2012. There are important ties between Huichol work and Native American, prehispanic, and Hispanic art histories and cultures. Known today for colorful, decorative yarn paintings, the origins of modern Huichol art are found in the earlier Huichol religious arts of the Robert M. Zingg ethnographic collection at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture.

Harry Fonseca: In the Silence of Dusk
February 14, 2010 through January 2, 2011
The exhibition Harry Fonseca: In the Silence of Dusk  focuses on four series of paintings that explore the transformative and mythic forces that Fonseca perceived in himself and the world around him. The painting series include In the Silence of Dusk, Stone Poems, St. Francis of Assisi; and Seasons. While not a retrospective, the exhibition explores Fonseca’s body of work as it changes focus from stylized but representational studies based on his Native American heritage to more abstract explorations of his world to non-objective compositions celebrating color. All of the works in the exhibition are courtesy of the Harry Fonseca Trust. The exhibition opens at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture on Sunday, February 14, 2010, 1:00-4:00 p.m. and runs through January 2, 2011.

Native Couture II: Innovation and Style
August 30, 2009 through February 21, 2010
Native Couture II: Innovation and Style opens at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture on Sunday, August 30, 2009. This exhibition explores the history of Native fashion from hand-made clothing and accessories of the 1880s that influenced the development of a Santa Fe Style, to today’s contemporary Native couturiers. At its root, Indian art is the quintessential original American art. This centuries-long influence of Native American art requires the buyer, or wearer, and the American public in general to ponder the origins of a truly unique American style.

Native American Picture Books of Change
February 15, 2009 through January 2, 2010
Native American Picture Books of Change—is an exhibition of original works by Hopi, Navajo, Apache, and Pueblo artists who illustrated children's books in the 1920's through today. Based on the book of the same title by Rebecca Benes, the exhibition focuses on illustrations in Native American children’s books of the last century. Emerging Indian artists illustrated the stories for Indian students based on Native oral traditions and narratives about everyday Indian life.

A River Apart
October 19, 2008 through October 2, 2011
Two major rivers and their tributaries - the Colorado River and the Rio Grande - have shaped both the landscape and the distribution of indigenous villages. Neighboring New Mexico pueblos on the banks of the northern Rio Grande - just a river apart - the communities of Cochiti and Santo Domingo share a ceramic tradition extending back almost 1,500 years. This permanent collection - A River Apart - preserves these iconic cultural representatives.

Comic Art Indigène
May 11, 2008 through January 4, 2009
Comic Art Indigène looks at how storytelling has been used through comics and comic inspired art to express the contemporary Native American experience.

Native Couture
December 16, 2007 through April 21, 2009
Santa Fe style represents a state of mind, it is not just jewelry and clothing but a feeling inside, a sense of place and that total belief in the Navajo saying, “Walk in beauty.”

Spider Woman’s (NA ASHJE’II ’ASDZÁÁ) Gift
May 14, 2007 through September 2, 2007
Spider Woman’s (Na ashje’ii 'Asdzáá) Gift: Navajo Weaving Traditions, a long-term exhibition, features weavings from the 1850s through the 1890s—the Classic and Transitional periods.