From the Vault

Kay WalkingStick returns to curate another exhibition from the Heard Museum’s permanent collection.

In 2001, artist Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee) was invited to guest curate So Fine! Masterworks of Fine Art from the Heard Museum, which highlighted pieces in the museum’s collection that exemplified the depth of emotion artwork can express and evoke. More than two decades later, WalkingStick has revisited the museum’s holdings to curate Paintings from the Heard Collection, a selection of more than 30 rarely shown large-scale works by Native American artists whose power have stood the test of time.

Joan Hill (Muscogee Creek/Cherokee, 1930-2020), Day of the Council, 1971, acrylic on canvas. Heard Museum Collection, Heard Museum Purchase, IAC365.

“Beyond her expertise, Kay WalkingStick’s relationship with the Heard Museum reaches back to 1985 for the Second Biennial Invitational,” says curator Roshii K. Montaño (Diné). “We felt it was a wonderful opportunity for WalkingStick to return to our collection and guide the presentation of Paintings. While she has a familiarity of the paintings in our collection, it has been over 20 years since reviewing it…It’s a rare experience for an artist like Kay WalkingStick to return to a museum’s collection after many years and see how it’s taken shape and what that might tell.”

Opening January 23 in the Freeman Gallery, Paintings from the Heard Collection will span multiple generations and a variety of styles and mediums, and feature works by some of the most renowned Indigenous artists. They include Fritz Scholder (Luiseño, 1937-2005), Kent Monkman (Cree), Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation, 1940-2025), Dan Namingha (Hopi), Tony Abeyta (Navajo), Steven Yazzie (Navajo), Emmi Whitehorse (Navajo), Harry Fonseca (Nisenan Maidu/Native Hawaiian/Portuguese, 1946-2006), Mary Morez (Navajo, 1946-2004) and many others.

Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee), Uncontrolled Destiny, 1989, acrylic and wax on canvas. Heard Museum Collection, Gift of Kay WalkingStick in Memory of R. Michael Echols, 3386-1A,B.

Frank LaPena (Nomtipom Wintu, 1937-2019), Deer Rattle-Deer Dancer, 1981, acrylic on canvas. Heard Museum Collection, Gift of Dr. Rennard Strickland, IAC2220.

Paintings from the Heard Collection will be on view in the Freeman Gallery to coincide with the exhibition Kay WalkingStick / Hudson River School through May 25, at which time it will expand into the museum’s Grand Gallery. Montaño says, “Knowing the first presentation of Paintings would coincide with Kay WalkingStick / Hudson River School, it felt like an opportunity to focus the visual narrative in Freeman to highlight notions of land, Indigenous cosmologies/ways of being and futurisms. We thought it would complement the curatorial thesis of KWS/HRS beyond the geographical context of East.”

One work of note in the first presentation is Joan Hill’s 1971 painting Day of the Council, one of the first in a series Hill began during the Vietnam War depicting the political power of Native American women.

Harry Fonseca (Nisenan Maidu/Native Hawaiian/Portuguese, 1946-2006), The Garden #1, 1988, acrylic on canvas. Heard Museum Collection, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Simberg, 3610-1.

Another highlight is Harry Fonseca’s The Garden #1, featuring two of his signature coyote characters in an Eden scene rendered in the artist’s vibrant, almost folk-art style. Frank LaPena (Nomtipom Wintu, 1937-2019) also revisits a recurring motif in his mysterious painting Deer Rattle-Deer Dancer, 1981. About another of LaPena’s “deer dancer” paintings, the Autry Museum of the American West explained, “In this painting the male performer has a deer skull, indicating that the spirits of the deer and the dancer have become one.” WalkingStick is also represented in the exhibition. Her painting Uncontrolled Destiny was executed in 1989, during a period when Walkingstick was establishing her signature landscapes that often, as in this example, paired an abstract panel with a more representational one to address the duality of perception.

Steven Yazzie (Diné), Recurrence, 2011, oil on canvas. Heard Museum Collection, Gift of Melvin Andre Medler, 5091-1.

Norman Akers (Osage Nation), Balancing Act, 1990, oil on canvas. Heard Museum Collection, Gift of Albion and Lynne Fenderson, 3588-1.

David M. Roche, Heard Museum Dickey Family Director and CEO adds, “KayWalking Stick has contributed in transformative ways to our collection and archive, and these two exhibitions allow us share with our visitors the dynamic relationship we have with her as an artist, scholar, interpreter, mentor and friend. Kay’s willingness to work with our curator, Roshii K. Montano, on the installation of Paintings from the Heard Museum ensures a rare opportunity for the transference of knowledge from one generation of Indigenous leadership to the next.” —

Through May 25, 2026
Paintings from the Heard Collection
Heard Museum
2301 N. Central Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85004
(602) 252-8840, www.heard.org