The Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit has recently acquired a collection of four sculptural works by Jemez artist Kathleen Wall, an alumna of the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), who created the piece for the institute’s 2021 IAIA Scholarship Event and Auction. The collection, titled Create Our Future—Honor Our Past, comprises Wall’s painted ceramic sculptures, each representing the Navajo, Plains, Woodland and Pueblo peoples. The project features an amazing cohort of collaborating artists who contributed to the works—Tony Abeyta (Navajo), Penny Singer (Diné), Diego Romero (Cochiti), Jody Naranjo (Santa Clara), Marcus Amerman (Choctaw), Kelly Church (Potawatomi/Odawa/Ojibwe), Wanesia Spry Misquadace (Ojibwe) and Linda Lomahaftewa (Hopi/Choctaw).
Kathleen Wall (Jemez), Create Our Future—Honor Our Past. Photographs by Jason S. Ordaz, Institute of American Indian Arts, 2021.
“I was captivated by Kathleen Wall’s Create Our Future—Honor Our Past, not only because of the number of collaborating contemporary Native American artists, but because of its connection to the Great Lakes region,” says Denene De Quintal, curator of Native American art at DIA. “The Anishinaabe figure, Sweetgrass, highlights Wall’s connection to her grandmother, who was both White Earth and Seneca. It features renowned Anishinaabe artists Wanesia Spry Misquadace and Kelly Church. Church’s work is [also] in the museum’s collection.”
Create Our Future—Honor Our Past was part of a total of 72 works by 63 Native American artists whose work was auctioned to benefit IAIA’s scholarship fund that supports IAIA students.
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