School for Advanced Research names three Native fellows

The School for Advanced Research helps cultivate Native artists.

The journey for each artist may be different, yet the Santa Fe-based educational institution recently named is 2023-2024 Native artist fellows.

This year’s artists include a multidisciplinary painter, a basketry and jewelry artist, and a photographer. Heidi Brandow, Michael Namingha and Carly Feddersen will have access to the Indian Arts Research Center (IARC) collection of Native artworks for research and study.

Olivia Amaya Ortiz, IARC artist and youth programs coordinator, says the program provides artists with time to explore new avenues of creativity and invites them to grapple with ideas that advance their work and strengthen their existing talents.

“We’re thrilled to welcome such a talented group of artists who are pushing personal artistic boundaries,” Amaya Ortiz says. “If one has the chance to, I hope that they will attend an artist talk and studio tour that accompanies the end of each artist fellow’s tenure at SAR.”

Brandow is the 2023 Ronald and Susan Dubin Native Artist Fellow.

She is a Diné/Kanaka Maoli artist who prioritizes Indigenous perspectives in the creation of ethical and sustainable forms of artistic expression.

Her multidisciplinary practice, which typically prioritizes painting as a medium, takes influence from architecture and design — with principles such as collaboration, material and the built environment.

Most recently, Brandow has been drawn to micaceous pottery, where she has spent time honing in on micaceous clay as a medium by working with pueblo elders and learning the fundamentals of working and building with clay.

During her residency, Brandow will explore three-dimensional forms through continued engagement with wood carving and clay.

Namingha is the 2023 Rollin and Mary Ella King Native Artist Fellow.

An Ohkay Owingeh and Hopi artist, he is a versatile photographer who combines new and old techniques to create a commentary on the rapidly changing landscape of the American West.

Namingha describes his work as containing images with abstracted compositions, often incorporating color psychology and skewed perspectives to convey a larger message about surrounding environmental issues.

While at SAR, he will work on a project that further explores it through a photo-screenprinting sand process and oral histories to translate works by his great-great-great grandmother, Hopi-Tewa potter Nampeyo — who is credited with reviving old design traditions among Hopi potters.

Feddersen is the 2024 Eric and Barbara Dobkin Native Artist Fellow.

She is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and is also an early career artist with a concentration in jewelry and traditional Plateau twined basketry.

While at SAR, Feddersen says she aspires to gain deeper understanding of Indigenous techniques for in-the-round design and pattern making on cylindrical objects by researching baskets and pottery from the IARC collection.