Weaving his magic: Diné artist Eric-Paul Riege receives prestigious fellowship

On Wednesday, Jan. 14, the arts organization United States Artists (USA) announced that Gallup-based artist Eric-Paul Riege (Diné) was one of 50 artists to receive its prestigious USA Fellowship in 2026. He will receive an unrestricted cash award of $50,000 to support his creative practice.

“Other artists I’ve known in the past who have gotten this award are artists I really look up to,” Riege said. “So being part of this new cohort … is really special. This was my third time being nominated for this award, so third time’s a charm!”

Riege, an internationally-exhibited fiber-based artist known for his large-scale installations, wearable art and avant-garde performances, said the award will allow him to take on even more ambitious projects.

“I like to work big, so having a larger loom will let me expand that even further,” he said. “Also, material can be expensive. I work in fabric, and I like to go to thrift stores and buy fabric, because it’s cheaper. But I also like to use different natural hides and furs, like sheep hides and deer hides, and those can add up. So, I’ll be able to expand my material range into new areas.”

Riege comes from a family of fiber artists. His mother taught him to sew from a young age, and his maternal great-grandmother introduced him to weaving.

“My great-grandmother — her name was Angela — she lived to be 106 and passed when I was 10 years old. But when I was a child, I would hang out with her … and those moments were really special to me,” Riege said. “She would always recognize people by their hands, because she wasn’t really able to use her hands anymore, so her relationship to weaving changed over time. She’s the main person in my family who I had a relationship with, who shared weaving with me as an idea.”

In high school, Riege learned to weave on a traditional Navajo loom, while being exposed to other fiber arts through his mother and aunts.

“My great-grandmother’s grandkids — my mother and her sisters — are all fiber artists in a different way. My mom is really good at sewing and beading, one of my aunts is really good at knitting, and another one of my aunts is really good at quilting. So, they all have fiber in their hands and have their own way of navigating fiber art,” Riege said. “I feel like, in some ways, my work is a celebration of each of their individual fiber art practices.”

Although he grew up immersed in sewing, quilting, knitting and weaving, Riege had relatively less exposure to contemporary Western art until he went to college — first at the University of New Mexico’s Gallup campus, then later at UNM’s main campus in Albuquerque.

“I took every art class available (at UNM Gallup) until there was none left for me to take, so then I transferred to Albuquerque,” Riege said.

There, he joined the Art and Ecology program, where he was mentored by the program’s graduate director, Szu-Han Ho, an installation and performance artist.

“The first class I took with her was a performance art class called Politics of Performance that completely blew my mind and (showed me) how art can relate to your body in a different way,” Riege said. “So, then I became a student of performance art.”

Through Szu-Han, Riege learned about contemporary Indigenous artists, including Rebecca Belmore (Ojibwe) and Cannupa Hanska Luger (Three Affiliated Tribes of Fort Berthold and Lakota). Luger received the USA Fellowship in 2021.

“I fell in love with (Luger’s) work. His process is interdisciplinary – he works a lot in fiber and clay – and seeing not only how he made the objects, but also learning about the concepts behind them, was really inspiring,” Riege said. “I’m lucky now that we’ve hung out a couple times. We went to breakfast together in Santa Fe.”

Coming from such a traditional art-making background, and now working in the realm of contemporary art, Riege said he’s always questioning what “traditional” and “authentic” really mean.

“I like playing with notions of what is authentic or inauthentic, so I like to use synthetic and natural materials together,” he said. “Right now, I’m looking at my little bead cart where I have all my beads, and some of these beads here are real bone, some are plastic, some are tin and some are stone. So, I welcome all facets of materiality, from high to low. Again, I was saying how, with this award, I can afford more of those natural materials, but I still like the play between what is deemed ‘real’ or ‘fake,’ and playing with the audience’s notions of those things.”

Riege also admires artists like Raven Chacon (Diné), whose city-wide “Tiguex” performance in Albuquerque in September blended art and everyday life. Riege said he watched the livestream of “Tiguex” with his family and would like to find ways to make his own work even more accessible to ordinary people.

“When I started working with different museums, they can be very intimidating — not only to me as the artist, but to the public,” Riege said. “How do you balance what you want to share with the audience as they come through the space but also welcome them in, where it feels like a hug? So, one thing I really value is touch. I like audiences to come and touch my work and feel it”

Ideally, he said, he would like to present more of his work outside of a museum context — perhaps even as a parade float in the annual Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial.

“I’ve always wanted to do some sort of parade float or a dance procession. I don’t have anything in the works, but that’s something I would love to work towards in the future — some sort of parade celebration where I make the costumes, and maybe the float is made by myself and the community,” Riege said. “That’s a dream of mine, so maybe with some of this funding, that can become a reality.”

Logan Royce Beitmen is an arts writer for the Albuquerque Journal. He covers visual art, music, fashion, theater and more. Reach him at lbeitmen@abqjournal.com or on Instagram at @loganroycebeitmen.