Jemez Pueblo artist’s pieces net $30K for IAIA fundraiser

The Detroit Institute of Arts has acquired four ceramic figures by Jemez Pueblo artist Kathleen Wall.

The pieces — together called Create Our Future–Honor Our Past — were purchased in August at a virtual auction and fundraiser for the Institute for American Indian Arts. The Detroit institute declined to disclose the purchase price for Wall’s work, but based on information on the auction website, Create Our Future–Honor Our Past sold for more than $30,000.

The fundraising event netted about $400,000 for student scholarships.

Wall is a 2014 IAIA graduate and one of 63 Native artists who donated their artwork to the auction. The figures in Create Our Future–Honor Our Past are about 24 inches tall and represent Navajo, Plains, Woodland and Pueblo people. The figures are adorned with beaded and woven bags, jewelry, and blanket designs contributed by other IAIA alumni, including Tony Abeyta (Navajo Nation), Penny Singer (Diné), Diego Romero (Cochiti Pueblo) and Jody Naranjo (Santa Clara Pueblo).

“I was captivated by Kathleen Wall’s Create Our Future–Honor Our Past, not only because of the number of collaborating contemporary Native American artists, but because of its connection to the Great Lakes region,” Denene De Quintal, the Detroit Institute of Art’s curator of Native American art, said in a statement.

Wall received a 2021 New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. She was named the 2020-21 Museum of Indian Arts and Culture Native Living Treasure, where an exhibition of her work, A Place in Clay, is on view through May 12.

COURTESY JASON S. ORDAZ/INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN INDIAN ARTS Kathleen Wall and her Create Our Future–Honor Our Past ceramic figures. Her pieces were sold at an Institute for American Indian Arts fundraiser and netted about $30,000, which will go toward student scholarships.