Native American women artists include the following notable individuals. This list article is of women visual artists who are Native Americans (First Nations of the U.S and Canada). Additions to the list are when and where each of the artists were born where they went to school, and what type of artwork are they known for. This also includes the categories of each artist, which are the type of the artist.
Mabel McKay, Pomo/Wintu/Patwin, born 1907 Nice, Lake County, CA. Basket weaver.[7]
Category NO2: Beadwork
Nellie Two Bear Gates (1854–1935), IháŋktȟuŋwaŋnaDakota artist whose beadwork depicted the history and culture of her people.[8]
Emily Waheneka, (born Kis-Sun-Y) Warm Springs, Wasco and Paiute. b. 1919
Simnasho, Oregon. Beadworking and sewn work, represented in the permanent collection of the Museum of Northwest Art, and others.[9][10]
Ida Sahmie (born 1960), Navajo ceramic artist known for combining Hopi traditional pottery with Navajo iconography.[16]
Margaret Tafoya (August 13, 1904 – February 25, 2001), Tewa artist known for traditional pottery. Recipient of a 1984 National Heritage Fellowship.[17]
Charlene Teters (Slum Tah), Spokane, born 1952 Spokane Reservation, Washington. Installation artist, painter, activist and educator.[22][23][24]
Category NO6: Jewelry
Denise Wallace (born 1957, Seattle), Sugpiaq (Eskimo). AA fine arts Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), Santa Fe 1981. Jeweler; studied lapidary work and silversmithing in Seattle prior to IAIA. Movable jewelry includes doors, latches, removable parts; created from gold, silver, ivory fossil, semiprecious stones.[7]
Category NO7: Mixed media
Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, Seminole/Creek/Navajo. born 1954 Phoenix. attended IAIA. BFA California College of Arts and Crafts (Oakland). Instructor at IAIA, SF Art Inst, UC Davis, California College of Arts and Crafts. Mixed media.[7]
Gail Tremblay, Onondaga/Micmac. born 1945 Buffalo New York. BA drama UNH 1967; MFA creative writing U Oregon 1969. As of publishing, member of faculty at
The Evergreen State College. Multi-media.[7]
Sara Bates, Cherokee, born 1944 Muskogee, Oklahoma BA Fine Art and Women's Studies, Cal State Bakersfield 1987; MFA Sculpture and Painting UCSB 1989, mixed media[7]
Category NO8: Painting
Tonita Peña
Pop Chalee ("Blue Flower") born Merina Lujan 1906 Castle Gate UT. Painter, muralist, performer.[7]
Helen Hardin, Tsa-Sah-Wee-Eh ("Little Standing Spruce"), Santa Clara Pueblo, b. 1943 Abq NM. Painter/printmaker in the collections of the Heard Museum, Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Museum of New Mexico and others.[7][25]
Georgia Mills Jessup (March 19, 1926 – December 24, 2016), painter, sculptor, ceramicist, muralist, and collage artist of African-American and Pamunkey descent. [citation needed]
Mary Longman (Aski-Piyesiwiskwew), Salteaux, Gordon First Nation. born 1964 Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan. Painting, drawing, sculpture. Associate Professor at University of Saskatchewan specializing in aboriginal art history.[15]
Tonita Peña, Quah Ah, San Ildefonso Pueblo, born 1893 San Ildefonso, attended St. Catherine's Indian School. Painter and muralist.[7]
Pablita Velarde - Tse Tsan ("Golden Dawn"), Santa Clara Pueblo, born 1918 at Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico. Attended St. Catherine's Indian School. Painter, book illustrator, muralist.[7]
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Salish/Cree/Shoshone, born 1940 St. Ignatius, Montana. BA art education, Framingham State College, 1976. MA art, UNM, 1980. Work includes paintings and other art.[7][20][26]
Kay WalkingStick, Cherokee. born 1935 Syracuse New York. BFA Beaver College (Pennsylvania) 1959; MFA Pratt Institute 1975. Painter.[7][27]
Emmi Whitehorse, Navajo. born 1956–1957, Crownpoint, New Mexico. BA painting UNM 1980. MA printmaking UM 1982. Painter.[7][28][29]
Category NO9: Performing arts
Rebecca Belmore (born March 22, 1960) Ojibwe performance artist. Residing in Canada, her performance and installation work has been exhibited internationally. [citation needed]
Lisa Mayo, Gloria Miguel and Muriel Miguel, Kuna/Rappahanonock-Powhatan. Theater/comedy "Spiderwoman Theater Company".[7]
Malinda M. Maynor, Lumbee, born Robeson County North Carolina (probably on reservation). A.B. History and Literature Harvard 1995; MA documentary film and video, Stanford 1997. Won film awards Best Indian-Produced Short Documentary 1997 Red Earth Film Festival and Best Short Documentary at
South by Southwest Film Festival, 1997[7]
Category NO10: Photography
Linda Lomahaftewa in 2009
Carmelita Little Turtle (Carm Little Turtle), Apache, Tarahumara, born 1952 Santa Maria, California, attended Navajo Community College, UNM, College of the Redwoods; photography Shenandoah Films in Arcata[7][1]
Linda Lomahaftewa, Hope-Choctaw, born 1947 Phoenix; Assoc. Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, BFA and MFA San Francisco Art Institute 1970 and 1971. Photographer.[7][27]
Jolene Rickard, Tuscarora, born 1956 Niagara Falls New York. BFA Rochester Institute of Technology 1978. MA, PhD SUNY Buffalo 1996. Photographer.[7][15][27]
Phoebe Farris, Powhatan-Renape, born 1952 Washington DC, BA Fine Arts, CUNY 1975; MPS Art Therapy Pratt Inst. 1977; PhD. Art Ed. UMD College park, 1988. Photography.[7]
Shelley Niro, Mohawk, born 1954 Niagara Falls, New York, attended Durham College in Ontario, Ontario College of Art and Design HFA 1990. Photography.[7][15]
Jane Ash Poitras, Cree, born 1951 Fort Chipewyan, Alberta. MS microbiology, University of Alberta. BFA Columbia 1983. MFA Columbia 1985. Printmaker, mixed-media collage, writing.[7]
Jean LaMarr, Pit River/Paiute, born 1945 Susanville, California, attended San Jose City College, UCB, U Oregon; art instructor at SF Art Institute and U Oregon. Printmaker.[7]
Category NO12: Sculpture
Kenojuak Ashevak in 1997
Kenojuak Ashevak (October 3, 1927 – January 8, 2013), Inuit artist from
Kinngait who specialized in
soapstone carving, drawing, etching, stone-cut, and print-making[32]
Lillian Pitt, Wa'-K-a-mu, Warm Springs Yakima Wasco, born 1943 Warm Springs, Oregon. AA, mental health and human services, Mt Hood Community College 1981. Maskmaker, bronze casting,
raku ware[7]
Roxanne Swentzell, Santa Clara Pueblo, born 1992 Taos, New Mexico. Attended Institute of American Indian Arts and Portland Museum Art School. Ceramic sculpture.[7][27]
Gwen Westerman[33] (Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Oyate). Fluent in the Dakota language; Professor of English and Director of the Humanities Program at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Writer, poet, fiber artist.[citation needed]
Rose Powhatan, Pamunkey, born 1948 Washington DC. BFA painting/art history Howard University. MA art education/art history, howard. Attended Catholic University DC, University of DC, and University of London. Wood totems, silkscreen prints.[7]
^"Elsie Allen, 1899-1990". Sonoma State University Library. 15 September 2017. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
^Wycliffe, Lydia L. (2001). Woven Worlds: Basketry from the Clark Field Collection at the Philbrook Museum of Art. Tulsa, OK: Philbrook Museum of Art.
ISBN0-86659-024-2.
^Ahlberg Yohe, Jill; Greeves, Teri; Power, Susan (2019). ""Nellie Two Bears Gates: Chronicling History through Beadwork"". Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Art.
^"Margaret Tafoya". National Endowment for the Arts. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
^Marching, Jane D. and Andrea Polli (2012). Far Field: Digital Culture, Climate Change, and the Poles. Chicago, IL: Intellect, The University of Chicago Press. pp. Chapter 8.
^
abcdMithlo, Nancy Marie; Fadden, Stephen; Wall, Stephen; Caro, Mario (2011). Manifestations: New Native Art Criticism. Albuquerque: Museum of Contemporary Native American Art.
ISBN978-0-615-48904-9.
^Macnair, Peter L.; Hoover, Alan L.; Neary, Kevin (1984). The Legacy: Tradition and Innovation in Northwest Coast Indian Art. Vancouver, B.C.: Douglas & McIntyre.
Farris, Phoebe (April 2005), "Contemporary Native American Women Artists: Visual Expressions of Feminism, the Environment, and Identity", Feminist Studies, 31 (1): 95–109,
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10.2307/20459008,
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Harlan, Theresa; Gully, Anne (1994), Watchful eyes: Native American women artists, Heard Museum,
ISBN9780934351478
Jacobs, Margaret D. (2003), "Shaping a new way: White women and the movement to promote Pueblo Indian arts and crafts, 1900–1935", in Ressler, Susan R. (ed.),
Women Artists of the American West, McFarland, pp. 83–96,
ISBN9780786410545