Highlights From the Santa Fe Indian Market

SANTA FE — As the sun beat down on attendees, this year’s Santa Fe Indian Market felt like a hot one, but not only in temperature. The 102nd edition of the annual event, presented by the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA), took place on August 17 and 18 on the historic Santa Fe Plaza. It featured the works of over 950 artists, as well as robust programming organized by SWAIA and other galleries, museums, foundations, and artist collectives, creating a dynamic buzz throughout the city. Year after year, the market’s popularity, attendance numbers, and side events keep increasing, drawing more artists, celebrities, curators, and collectors than ever before. 

Acoma Pueblo artist Dan Vallo was awarded Best of Show at this year’s juried competition for his mixed-media assemblage “Pueblo Revolt Ensemble,” an interpretation of the weapons used by Pueblo warriors when they rose up against Spanish colonizers during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. The work is an imbricated commentary on Indigenous resistance, survival, and endurance. 

On the plaza, artist and curator Monica Jo Raphael (Anishinaabe-Sičáŋǧu Lakota/Grand Traverse Band Ottawa and Chippewa Indians), who won Best of Classification in the juried competition in Beadwork and Quillwork, showed dentalium jewelry, much of it made from vintage and antique shells, alongside her winning sculpture, “Indede Odayi – My Dad’s Horse,” composed of harvested porcupine quills, birchbark, and beadwork. 

Artist, performer, and writer Bobby Wilson (Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota) exhibited in a pop-up shop called “Off Market” alongside Jared Yazzie’s (Diné) OXDX Clothing line, Wabanoonkwe, and other artists. Offering a mix of wearable art, beadwork, jewelry, fashion, and prints, the space served as an alternative for artists to sell their work.

Several strong exhibitions were on view off the plaza as well, including VOID_STRATA at Gerald Peters Contemporary, Disaster Series by Michael Namingha at Niman Gallery, and wai ulana (woven waters) at Hecho a Mano. For Santiago X show at Gerald Peters, the artist (who is CHamoru/Koasati) plays with television test patterns in textile installation, video, and sculpture, investigating concepts of time, space, and perception by illustrating the elasticity of history and envisioned futures.

At Hecho a Mano, Kanaka Maoli artists Lehuauakea and Ian Kuali’i presented pieces on kapa (barkcloth) and hand-cut paper, respectively. Referencing storytelling and traditional tattooing, the works evoke places, personal histories, and legacies. Lehuauakea’s kapa works utilize earth pigments and traditional patterns to illustrate connections between the environment, Indigenous resilience, and the preservation and perpetuation of Native Hawaiian craft practices. Kuali’i showed hand-cut lenticular works that speak to Native Hawaiian politics, legacies of dispossession and colonialism, and ancestral iconographies.

Michael Naimgha’s potent series of screen-printed photographs, Disasters (2024), looks at the ecological impact of the climate catastrophe, as well as cultural perseverance, and the effects that colonialism and environmental racism continue to have on Indigenous communities. The works depict a pyrocumulonimbus cloud that was generated during the 2022 Hermits Peak fire, New Mexico’s largest forest fire on record, which smoldered for more than five months and consumed over 340,000 acres. The silkscreened prints allude to the Air Quality Index color chart, which ranges from green (safe) to purple and maroon (extremely unsafe). Beyond the environmental realities of extreme forest fires brought on by a changing climate, Namingha associates the cloud image with Hopi and Tewa peoples, and the sacred iconographies they represent.

Like most years, though, one of the hottest tickets is the Native Fashion Show. The sold-out event was packed to the brim with artists, collectors, and fashion industry representatives and was opened by Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas and PJ Vegas. Organized by Amber-Dawn Bear Robe (Siksika Nation), it featured five Indigenous designers alongside a small presentation from Balmain Paris. While the Indigenous fashion artists proved why more attention should be paid to their work, the inclusion of a French fashion house at first seemed befuddling. But according to Bear Robe, “Balmain Paris’s involvement helps bridge the gap between mainstream fashion and Indigenous artistry, creating a space for cultural exchange and honoring the deep history and innovation within Native fashion design.” This collaboration was evident in the models’ styling with jewelry from Indigenous designers including ​​Cody Sanderson and George Rivera. Balmain is also donating a percentage of their sales to SWAIA. 

Fashion veterans like Jamie Okuma (Luiseño/Shoshone-Bannock) and Lauren Good Day (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Nation) delivered stellar collections, incorporating motifs and designs from their respective cultural heritages. Newer additions to this year’s runway, Adrian Standing-Elk Pinnecoose (Navajo/Southern Ute), who runs the line ASEP Designs, and transdisciplinary artist Caroline Monnet (Anishinaabe, French, and Canadian) both knocked it out of the park with powerhouse collections. ASEP Designs delivered a small collection of flowing red gowns with geometric 3D-printed details. The garments are part of a full collection titled Reawakening Transcendance that will “blend past and futurism,” to be unveiled in 2025. Monnet’s runway was filled with geometric textiles alluding to birch bark biting, while her amorphous, membrane-like jackets and coats read almost like futuristic armor. The final designer, Jontay Kahm (Plains Cree), brought the house down with architectural beadwork, quillwork, and feathers.  

Taking in all the art, performances, events, and shows can be difficult, but the level of Indigenous creativity, excellence, and culture on view during Santa Fe Indian Market is something truly special to behold.