Press

Modernists were interested in the present, rooted in real things and real people, but had an eye to the future. An optimistic movement with both local and global impact, one that should not see modernism as singular (with a capital M) but as an inclusive plurality. As a global movement, emerging modernisms were concerned with understanding place and the world. In the United States, modernism held a particularly invigorating promise for jewelry. Modern jewelers freed themselves from the constraints of conventions around preciousness and emphasized craftsmanship. They redefined jewelry as a skilled experiment in aesthetics, forms and techniques.

This verve can be seen in the dazzling work that emerged from the hands and imaginations of Native jewelers from the 1940s onwards. This marks a moment when Native jewelry worked in boutique jewelry shops and family concerns which opened in a variety of locations including cities such as Tucson, Scottsdale, Albuquerque, and Santa Fe.

Inside the museum’s hogan-shaped space, the artist Nora Naranjo Morse (Kha’p’oe Owingeh) put the finishing touches on “Into the Forever,” a giant sculpture extending upward to the roof, fashioned from “society’s discards,” she put it, including burlap chile sacks.

The Peruvian artist Cristina Flores Pescorán creates work that promotes healing, an effort to reclaim her body after a rare blood cancer that affected skin pigmentation. She crafted 38 wall elements, mirroring her 38-page medical report, from diaphanous Peruvian cotton and copper netting — proof that unexpected beauty can be born from adversity.

Raven Halfmoon’s (b. 1991, Caddo) monumental ceramic female figures installed outside greet visitors to the Museum. One, Soku & Nash (Caddo – Sun & Moon) (2022), faces Sun and Moon Mountain. Museum Hill offers some of the best views in Santa Fe.

Inside, paintings from Emmi Whitehorse (b. 1957, Navajo), a video from 2022 MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant” recipient Sky Hopinka (b. 1984; Ho-Chunk/ Luiseño), delicate needlework textiles by Cristina Flores Pescorán (b. 1986, Lima, Peru) resembling her organs, and a room-filling Nora Naranjo Morse (b. 1953, Kha’P’o Owenge (Santa Clara Pueblo)) fabric sculpture composed of discarded items sourced in the Jornada del Muerto (Dead Man’s Journey) region of Southern New Mexico are in service to John Chee Arviso (1910–2005, Navajo), the Wheelwright’s “person of interest.”

Charlotte Mittler and the Mittler Family Foundation have donated their treasured collection of Cochiti Storytellers and Mono figurines to the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian and have generously two-million-dollar gift to help the museum reconfigure its lower-level gallery.