2019 Cherokee Art Market Winners - First American Art Magazine

Chase Kahwinhut Earles (Caddo Nation) with his Best of Show and Best of Classification winner, “Kee-Wat: Caddo Home,” ceramic sculpture.

Catoosa, OK — The Cherokee Nation sponsored its 14th annual Cherokee Art Market (CAM) on October 12 and 13, 2019. The market takes place at the tribe’s Hard Rock Hotel And Casino Tulsa. This year, Chase Earles (Caddo Nation) won the coveted Best of Show award Kee-Wat: Caddo Home, a ceramic sculpture featuring a Caddo grass lodge and summer arbor, over a bowl of incised, spiral patterns based on Ancestral Caddo designs. Earles of Ada, Oklahoma, harvested his clay near the Red River, where countless generations of his ancestors gathered clay. He hand-processed the shell-tempered clay and fires it outside to create a study, yet astonishingly lightweight ceramic artwork.

Monica Raphael (Grand Traverse Ottawa/Ojibwe) and her quillwork, beadwork, and textile arts

Awarding $75,000 in prize money, Cherokee Art Market is the most prestigious Native art market in Oklahoma and attracts more than 140 artists from 40 tribes and nations from throughout the United States. In addition to individual artist booths, CAM also allows booths for two groups, the Southeastern Indian Artists Association and Spider Gallery, both located in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. CAM one of the larger tribally-run art markets (Kewa Pueblo Labor Day Market with 345 artists is the largest in the United States). Along with the Pueblo Market at Isleta Resort and Casino, it is one of the successful few art markets housed in a casino.

Collector Bill Wiggins and Cherokee National Treasure Jane Osti

The success and longevity of the Cherokee Art Market come from the support from the Cherokee Nation through three tribal administrations and the enthusiasm and expertise of its staff, especially Deborah Fritts, special events coordinator for the market. While CAM honors Cherokee artists – particularly the Cherokee National Treasures, artists and cultural bearers specifically chosen for their contributions to the community – it is open to all federally-recognized tribes coast to coast. Fritts encourages artists from diverse regions and artistic backgrounds to participate in the show, which is attracting the attention of more major collectors, who traveled in from neighboring states as well as Minnesota, North Carolina, and other locales to take advantage of the intimate opportunity to visit with the artists.