Press

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.