Contemporary Native American Artists

Through the millennia, Native Americans have created fine art. Southwestern canyon walls are covered with petroglyphs that still inform today’s paintings, and ancient rituals live on in the handicrafts of daily life. Contemporary artists have built upon these, their ancestral traditions, and have reinterpreted them for a modern world.

Ken Lingad had a vision for these artists and their art. He assembled an exemplary group that would be the best of the best–not simply the most recognized, but the topmost artists in a wide range of mediums and styles. For just over a year, 2007-2008, these artists shared an exhibition structure that was modeled on tribal traditions as surely as was their art.

These masters of contemporary Native American art displayed their enormous talent through painting, sculpture, pottery, jewelry, and clothing. And although that unique gathering of artists has now dispersed and evolved into new ventures, the art they continue to create is respected around the globe for its intrinsic beauty―and for the deeper meaning embedded by the artist in each artwork.

In Contemporary Native American Artists, these luminaries of the Native art world are brought together through stunning photography and intimate portrayals of their lives and their art. Through Kitty Leaken’s photographs, follow world-renowned potter Jody Naranjo as she fires pots on her tribal lands. Watch painter Rhett Lynch use color and texture as he crafts modern masterpieces. And stand alongside as sculptor Adrian Wall smooths the limestone to reveal the beautiful sculpture within.