SANTA FE — Each third weekend in August, New Mexico’s capital turns into a hub of Indigenous creativity for the Santa Fe Indian Market, hosted by the Southwestern Affiliation for Indian Arts (SWAIA). This 12 months, the air felt charged as lightning propelled down from monsoon-filled clouds at the beginning of the weekend, however it didn’t take lengthy for the skies to clear. For its 103rd version, over 1,000 artists from greater than 200 tribal nations showcased works round Santa Fe Plaza on Saturday and Sunday, drawing greater than 100,000 attendees from around the globe.
Traditionally, the Santa Fe Indian Market has advanced to fulfill artists’ wants in tandem with shifting bureaucratic tides, and funding cuts, censorship, and useful resource extraction have been matters of dialog. Posters wheatpasted across the Plaza alluded to lingering political tensions concerning the town’s dependence on cultural tourism and Santa Fe Indian Market’s ethnographic origins.
“There’s a lot at risk this year,” Jamie Schulze (Northern Cheyenne/Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate), government director of SWAIA, informed Hyperallergic. She emphasised that gathering in neighborhood is an important technique to alternate data and strengthen intertribal connections.
Posters wheatpasted round Santa Fe Plaza
A view of the Santa Fe Indian Market’s 103rd version, August 16–17, 2025
Schulze stated that many artists credit score the market as a foundational early-career catalyst. Official programming has expanded to incorporate a burgeoning movie pageant and a vogue present debuting cutting-edge couture from acclaimed Indigenous designers. These feats of organizational planning are steered by a small crew of girls, most of whom are Native.
Winners throughout 10 classifications on this 12 months’s Better of Present juried exhibition have been introduced at a reception on Friday afternoon. Regina Free (Chickasaw) obtained the singular award and Better of Sculpture for “Windswept (Bison)” (2025), a contemplative bison bust constructed out of upcycled supplies.
Visible artist Carmen Selam (Yakama Nation) at her SWAIA market sales space on the Plaza
Virgil Ortiz (Cochiti), “Aeronaut/Pilot of the Survivorship” on show at his SWAIA market sales space, a part of his ongoing sci-fi sequence Pueblo Revolt 1680/2180 and awarded Better of Classification, Numerous Arts
For Carmen Selam (Yakama Nation), who was exhibiting an array of work, prints, and jewellery, this was her first 12 months taking part. As a queer modern artist, she stated the sensation of belonging throughout the market’s wealthy creative custom was extremely gratifying. “Native people, we’re a living culture, and our culture isn’t static,” she stated. “So I love being a part of this.”
Different artists spoke to artmaking’s capability for therapeutic. Melissa Freeman (Chickasaw/Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma), one other first-timer, was thrilled to obtain a second-place ribbon within the Textiles classification for the garment she crafted to honor her late father: a Choctaw diamond costume that drew passersby with its hanging black brocade and iridescent beads.
“It’s been a great experience to come here and see so many artists — and to be able to display my work and actually place,” she informed Hyperallergic. Just a few blocks away, Lonnie Vigil (Nambé Pueblo) spoke about his expertise working with micaceous clay over the past 40 years as an ongoing apply of meditation and introspection.
Melissa Freeman (Chickasaw/Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) at her SWAIA sales space with the Choctaw diamond costume she made to honor her late father, which obtained a second-place ribbon for Textiles
Hiro Money (Diné), a painter from Gallup, New Mexico, and a pupil on the Institute for American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, introduced a sequence of enormous summary canvases. Black metallic and punk music are important influences on his work, harking back to a collaboration between Jean-Michel Basquiat and Jaune Fast-to-See Smith (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation) if the late painters had teamed as much as design a Misfits album cowl.
Money remarked on the artwork world’s tendency to view Indigenous artists by means of a constricted lens. “Even though I am Native American, my work doesn’t have to be categorized as ‘Indian art,’” he stated. His message for different artists was to “do what you want to do and just kick ass at it.”
Jackie Larson Bread (Blackfeet), “His Stories Became Legend,” awarded Better of Classification, Beadwork/Quillwork
Artistic seeds dispersed by the market 12 months after 12 months have bloomed right into a city-wide ecosystem of commerce, commerce, performances, vogue exhibits, and multidisciplinary exhibitions. But in a municipality closely depending on cultural tourism with over 250 galleries, solely a handful are Native-owned, in line with unbiased curator Jamie Herrell (Cherokee).
Of those brick-and-mortar strongholds, Cara Romero (Chemehuevi) debuted New Mythos on Thursday night at her gallery area within the Railyard, co-curated with Herrell and that includes eight various Indigenous artists. Niman Tremendous Artwork, established in 1990 by the Namingha household of Hopi-Tewa artists, introduced a brand new choice of works by Dan, Arlo, and Michael Namingha of their gallery close to the Plaza on Friday.
Reservation for Irony panel on the Institute of Modern Artwork Santa Fe
Elsewhere in Santa Fe, a panel with Romero, Kent Monkman (Fisher River Cree Nation), Nicholas Galanin (Sitka, Tlingit, Unangax̂), and Tony Abeyta (Diné) coincided with one other exhibition exploring humor as an act of Indigenous resistance. Solo exhibitions by Diego Medina (Piro-Manso-Tiwa) and Marcus Xavier Chormicle (Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, second lineal descendant) opened alongside a pop-up market and free ebook honest organized by NDN Ladies Ebook Membership.
On Friday and Sunday night, folks shuttled out to Tesuque for the experimental Malinxe opera, directed by Autumn Chacon (Diné/Chicana) for the continued twelfth SITE Santa Fe Worldwide. Scored by Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache), the conjectural, asynchronous reimagining of La Malinche and La Llorona folklore starred Marisa Demarco and Jeffrey Gibson (Mississippi Band Choctaw/Cherokee). IAIA’s Museum of Modern Native Artwork (MoCNA) hosted its annual Scholar and Latest Graduate Artwork Market in its museum courtyard north of the Plaza and the brand new multimedia exhibition Breaking Floor: Artwork & Activism in Indigenous Taiwan.
Narrative drawings by Beau Tsatoke (Kiowa) at his SWAIA market sales space
J. Rae Pictou (Mi’kmaq Nation) was awarded a first-place ribbon within the Sculpture classification.
Lengthy earlier than Europeans arrived within the Americas, O’ga P’ogeh Owingeh (now often called Santa Fe) was a website of alternate for Indigenous folks throughout the Americas. It stays an necessary cultural nexus for Tewa folks, which embrace the Pueblos of Nambé, Pojoaque, San Ildefonso, Ohkay Owingeh, Santa Clara, and Tesuque. In the present day, as Indigenous folks all through the USA face new threats to land sovereignty and belief duties, the Santa Fe Indian Market continues to develop, opening portals of alternative for artists inside its ever-expanding orbit.
Joe Seymour (Acoma Pueblo and Salish [Squaxin Island]) together with his map of Haak’u (Acoma Pueblo) at his SWAIA market sales space
Wakeah Jhane (Comanche Nation) gained two first-place ribbons for her mixed-media art work incorporating ledger portray and botanical supplies.
