The public opening will take place August 16 from 5–7 pm, with a special member-only preview with light hors d’oeuvres and spirits from 4–5 pm. To become a MoCNA member and attend the member-only preview, join online or by phone at (505) 428-5925.

Arctic Highways: Unbounded Indigenous People

Meryl McMaster (Plains Cree), What Will I Say to the Sky and the Earth II, 2019, print on aluminum, 1200 x 800 mm, photograph courtesy of the artist.

The traveling exhibition Arctic Highways features 12 Indigenous artists from Sápmi (cultural region traditionally inhabited by the Sámi people) and North America, sharing stories of Indigenous people who live on different continents yet regard themselves as kindred spirits. Artworks explore what it means to be unbounded, pointing to the restrictions of political borders, often arbitrarily drawn without regard to landscapes that have been used by Sápmi and North American Indigenous cultures for thousands of years.

Arctic Highways includes photography, duodji (Sámi handicraft), sculpture, fiber art, and videos, offering viewers an opportunity to learn more about international Indigenous art and issues at play in Sápmi and the Arctic. Even though these artists hail from the far North, their art touches on themes that resonate deeply with many of MoCNA’s Native American communities in the Southwest. From border issues to land loss, to threats to the environment, and language and cultural preservation, these artists use their art to shed light on shared experiences and concerns.

Curated by Indigenous artists Tomas Colbengtson (Sámi, Sweden), Gunvor Guttorm (Sámi, Norway), Dan Jåma (Sámi, Norway), and Britta Marakatt-Labba (Sámi, Sweden), Arctic Highways includes their own works alongside those of artists Matti Aikio (Sámi, Finland), Stina Folkebrant (Sweden), Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Iñupiaq, Athabascan, Alaska), Maureen Gruben (Inuvialuk, Canada), Marja Helander (Sámi, Finland), Laila Susanna Kuhmunen (Sámi, Sweden), Olof Marsja (Sámi, Sweden), Meryl McMaster (Plains Cree), and Máret Ánne Sara (Sámi, Norway).

Accompanying Arctic Highways is a mural in MoCNA’s hallway created by Swedish artist Stina Folkebrant and IAIA alum David Naranjo (Santa Clara Pueblo) ’17. Stina Folkebrant also collaborated with Arctic Highways artist Tomas Colbengtson on the installation Mygration, which will be on view in the exhibition. Folkebrant is known for her large-scale animal portraits and landscapes inspired by Chinese ink painting. Mural collaborator and painter David Naranjo creates designs for clothing and accessories, based on Pueblo pottery iconography that often refers to the Southwestern landscape and natural world.

Aslaug Magdalena Juliussen (Sámi, Norway), Várddus – Vy – View, 2017–2023, textiles, fibers, animal skin, 71” x 51” x 2”, photograph courtesy of Kunstnerforbundet.

Common Thread: Indigenous Perspectives from the Arctic

For millennia Indigenous peoples of the North have lived in harmony with the land and sea. The twelve artists and activists in the exhibition Common Thread: Indigenous Perspectives from the Arctic continue this relationship. Their artworks examine important issues, including land rights, borders, environmental concerns, language and cultural preservation, identity, self-representation, and violence against Indigenous peoples. These works also highlight artists’s connection to place, the natural world, and their communities.

Northern homelands are some of the first regions in the world negatively affected by climate change. Living in environments altered by unprecedented rates of sea ice loss, temperature and sea level rise, ocean acidification, animal population declines, reductions in wild plant yields and diversity, permafrost thaw, and severe coastal erosion, many Indigenous peoples find their way of life also threatened, causing profound physical and emotional damage. The physical, spiritual, and cultural health of their communities is intertwined with activities practiced over countless generations. The imposition of colonial social and work customs continue to fracture relationships to the environment and its plants, animals, marine life, and birds—all essential to the well-being of Indigenous communities. Common Thread artists use their works to provoke a discussion about the changing North and effects of colonialization, fostering opportunities for positive change and healing. The exhibition was guest-curated by Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Iñupiaq, Athabascan, Alaska). Among the artists are Jenny Irene Miller (Inupiaq, Alaska), Holly Nordlum (Iñupiaq, Alaska), Melissa Shaginoff (Ahtna and Paiute, Alaska), Maureen Gruben (Inuvialuk, Canada), Taqralik Partridge (Inuk, Canada), Marja Helander (Sámi, Finland), Julie Edel Hardenberg (Inuk, Greenland), Jessie Kleemann (Kalaaleq, Greenland), Sissel M. Bergh (Sámi, Norway), Aslaug Magdalena Juliussen (Sámi, Norway), and Britta Marakatt-Labba (Sámi, Sweden).

For more information, please contact IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) Chief Curator Manuela Well-Off-Man at manuela.well-off-man@iaia.edu.