Native Art Market

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James Kreul

Artist Dakota Mace and customers at a Native Art Market event.

Artist Dakota Mace at the first Native Art Market at Arts + Literature Laboratory.

After its debut in May, the Native Art Market returns for fall (and just ahead of Indigenous Peoples' Day on Oct. 9) with works by 20 Wisconsin artists. As market founder Dakota Mace says in a press release about the event, “Through this market, I hope to challenge the fetishization of Indigenous art and allow the work of each artist to speak to the importance of community and tradition.” Find a list of artists below, and more info at artlitlab.org.

media release: Arts + Literature Laboratory invites the public to celebrate Indigenous culture and heritage in advance of Indigenous Peoples' Day during the Fall Native Art Market, Saturday and Sunday, October 7-8. The Market will be open 10am-5pm both days in the Arts + Literature Laboratory galleries at 111 S. Livingston Street, Suite 100.

Twenty Native artists will share and sell their work in the galleries, and will lead free demonstrations. Work spans a wide range of traditional and contemporary art forms including Indigenous beadwork, quillwork, weaving, leather work, metals, and clothing.

On Saturday, October 7 at 7:30pm, there will be a free performance of Indigenous music from the Andes by Duo Pukra, featuring siblings Richard Hildner Armacanqui and Natalia Hildner Armacanqui. Additionally, the main galleries at Arts + Literature Laboratories will feature recent work by Native artists Monty Little and John Hitchcock (with Chad Oliver). Admission to the market, exhibitions, and concert is free and open to the public.

The Native Art Market was developed earlier this year by Dakota Mace (https://www.dakotamace.com/), an interdisciplinary artist whose work focuses on translating the language of Diné history and beliefs, who works out of a studio at Arts + Literature Laboratory. Mace and collaborator Paige Skenandore invited the following twenty Native artists to participate in Market:

Rebecca Comfort (Keweenaw Bay Indian Community)

Charlotte Easterling (Oglala Sioux)

Ruth A. Garvin (Sac and Fox Nation)

Harmony Hill (Oneida)

Xavier Horkman (Oneida)

Monty Little (Diné)

Dakota Mace (Diné)

Joe Mace (Diné)

Laura Manthe (Oneida)

MicahMarie E. McCann (Ho-Chunk)

Marjorie MorningStar Mehojah (Oneida)

Sayokla Kindness-Williams (Oneida)

Cynthia Otero (Diné)

Eliza Skenandore (Oneida)

Liandra Skenandore (Oneida)

Paige Skenandore (Oneida)

Miranda Smith (Oneida)

Cynthia Thomas (Oneida)

Crystal Wabnum (Kickapoo)

Sunny Webster (Oneida)

Mace piloted the Market in May 2023 to create a new platform for Native artists to share their work in Madison and increase local knowledge of Native culture. Mace commented, “For many Indigenous communities, their family traditions, culture, language, and future are expressed through their art. This essential artistic expression connects to the past, present, and future and is vital for maintaining cultural traditions. For most, creating art provides a source of income and also opens up opportunities for Indigenous makers to continue the education and cultural resilience of their art.”

The Market will support Native artists through sales and highlight the diversity of makers within the Madison community and the state, and will provide a framework to appreciate the work.  Mace stated, “Through this market, I hope to challenge the fetishization of Indigenous art and allow the work of each artist to speak to the importance of community and tradition. For participating artists, it is about creating a new visual language independent of the western gaze, embracing our complexity, and seeing our art through our eyes. Through shared experiences, we can reimagine a new future of Indigenous art that embraces our art as more than a symbol of aesthetic decoration but one that forms from experimentation. The market provides a space for Indigenous people to push those boundaries while fostering and supporting Indigenous/Native artists.”

The Fall Native Art Market is supported by Dane Arts, the Madison Arts Commission, Wisconsin Arts Board, TruStage, UW-Madison Indigenous EcoWell Initiative, and the Isthmus, with additional support from the Endres Manufacturing Company Foundation, the Evjue Foundation, Inc., charitable arm of The Capital Times, the W. Jerome Frautschi Foundation, the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.