Reporter’s Notebook: Chadd Scott at the Santa Fe Indian Market, Day 1
The 103rd annual Southwestern Association for Indian Arts Santa Fe Indian Market opened with a surprise Best of Show winner. First time SWAIA artist Regina Free’s (Chickasaw) monumental (24” x 48” x 8 feet) mixed media 3D sculpture, Windswept (Bison), claimed top prize for the relative unknown.
Special to Fry Bread by Chadd Scott of See Great Art
The artwork is composed of foam, felt, paper towels, plaster, acrylic, air dry clay, watercolor, fabric dye, (natural and commercial dyes) reclaimed driftwood, and weathered metal sheeting, with a wood frame. The wooly beast’s “fur” is rendered from dyed paper towels, excess from a house cleaning project Free took part in.
Exciting in an event over a century old, with entrants who’ve been participating 20, 30, 40 years and more, with scores of artists who have work in the nation’s most prestigious art museums, that a Best of Show winner can come from out of nowhere. Free was stunned by the announcement.
Her and her husband drove from Oklahoma with the piece, napping in convenience stores along the way. Free wasn’t sure she’d even be juried into the Market and she ends up on top of the mountain!
The Best of Show ceremony takes place at the Santa Fe Convention Center on the Friday before the event’s two “market” days – Saturday and Sunday. Car traffic around the Santa Fe Plaza is blocked off and the streets are filled with artist booths – roughly 1,000 – and people – roughly 100,000. It’s my favorite event in the art world.
Once again, the ceremony put on display paintings, photography, sculpture, baskets, beadwork, pottery, katsinas, jewelry and more from Indigenous artists across the United States in a double ballroom sized exhibition hall. A sneak preview of what will be seen at the booths outside over the weekend. Astounding work. Amazingly diverse; like Native America itself.
Tlingit photographer Zoë Urness continues impressing me after I first came across her work in the Native art magazines and at Market a year ago. Humorous. Contemporary. Defiant.
Legendary Cochiti potter/sculptor Virgil Ortiz has added a new element to his practice, debuting an inconceivable, unimaginable, unthinkable – except for him – pottery sculpture encased in glass.
Kelly Church (Match E Be Nash She Wish Tribe) has a basket at the Chicago Art Institute in the same gallery room as Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, arguably the most famous painting in American art history. She showed a number of exceptional pieces at the ceremony.
A full regalia dress with grizzly bear necklace by Catherine Black Horse (Seminole Nation of Oklahoma) was paired on display with another traditional dress by fellow Seminole Nation of Oklahoma artist Jaylee Lowe to dramatic effect.
Another surprise was a blue ribbon for Comanche Nation painter Nocona Burgess’ 5-inch diameter disposable picnic plate painted over in cream with the realistic image of a hot dog painted on, Pow Wow Glizzy. How on earth did this silly little artwork win a blue ribbon at the oldest, largest, and most prestigious Indigenous art show in the world?
Because it’s unexpected. Among all the pictures of indomitable buffalo and sagacious elders, here’s a freaking hot dog. Native American art doesn’t soar when it becomes “of a type,” warmed over, safe, predictable; Burgess’ wiener breaks all the rules.
It’s provocative. Why is this here? It recalls Marcel Duchamp’s famed urinal sculpture and art world s#!t disturber Maurizio Cattelan taping a banana to the wall at Art Basel Miami Beach.
It’s common, in the best way. Relatable. Generations of pow wow attendees have looked down at a plate in their hands and seen exactly what Burgess painted.
There was nothing else even close to like it in the show – Dada meets Pop art meets Native art – and the judges rewarded him, as they should have.
Check out more of Chadd Scott’s work at SeeGreatArt.art.
