Past Exhibitions

A Place in Clay

May 16, 2021 through May 10, 2022

Gye wha la’ pah
Kathleen Wall (Jemez Pueblo),  Gye wha la’ pah,  from the  Place  series, 2016. Figure: hand-processed Jemez Pueblo clay, acrylic and earth pigments, clay slip, underglazes; Painting: acrylic and earth pigments, clay slip, and sand on canvas. 36 × 30 × 8 in. Photograph courtesy of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture.

2020-2021 Native Treasures Living Treasure, Kathleen Wall
2020-2021 Native Treasures Living Treasure, Kathleen Wall. 

The exhibition, A Place in Clay, seamlessly moves between clay sculptures and acrylic paintings, in which Wall engages with and explores her high desert surroundings. Finding inspiration in both her family’s artistic practices and the environment of Jemez Pueblo, Wall ask questions surrounding food sovereignty, language, and connection to place. 

"I have always considered Pueblo pottery to be an essential ingredient in my life," said Wall. "Over the last thirty years, I have begun my creative process with the same actions as my mother, my grandmother, and my great grandmother before her. I dig clay and volcanic ash in the same places that my mother showed me as a young girl. I have created most of my clay figures using traditionally processed clay from here in Jemez Pueblo…where I began."