The Moving Land: Art by Linda Lomahaftewa

January 28–July 18, 2021
IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts
108 Cathedral Place, Santa Fe, NM

Viets Lomahaftewa (Hopi), Linda’s grandfather, visits her in San Francisco, 1970.

The long-anticipated retrospective of Linda Lomahaftewa (Hopi/Choctaw), painter, printmaker, and mixed-media artist, opened at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts on January 28 and will remain on view until July 18, 2021.

Lomahaftewa was one of the first waves of students at the newly established Institute of American Indian Arts founded in 1962. Along with Kevin Red Star (Cross), Earl Biss (Crow), Bill Prokopiof (Unangax̂), and T. C. Cannon (Kiowa/Caddo), Lomahaftewa entered the San Francisco Art Institute but was the only one of her IAIA cohort to graduate from SFAI. Whether exhibiting in Harmony Hammond and Jaune Quick-To-See Smith’s groundbreaking Women of Sweetgrass, Cedar, and Sage (1985) or Sara Bate’s Indian Humor (1995), Lomahaftewa has been at the forefront of pivotal developments in Native American art through the last six decades.

Initially a painter, Lomahaftewa fell in love with printmaking processes, especially monotypes and chine-collé collage. Her works are known for their vibrant colors and symbolism inspired by Southwest petroglyphs and iconography from Woodland, Hopewell, and Mississippian interaction spheres that she has researched by traveling to monumental earthwork throughout the Eastern United States, including the Nawih Waiya cave from which Choctaw people emerged and their mother mound in Mississippi.

Lomahaftewa has traveled exhibited globally, including in New Zealand, England, Russia, and China. Now that the COVID-19 pandemic has forced her to stay close to home, she has focused her artistic practice to seeking healing and hope. A print catalogue is planned to accompany the exhibition.

Reserve timed tickets to see the exhibition in person here.

Gallery talk with Linda Lomahaftewa and curator Lara Evans (Cherokee Nation)
Thursday, March 4, 2021 (rescheduled)
4:00 – 5:00 pm Mountain time
via Zoom | Register
More info

IAIA MoCNA Exhibitions