Moving Beyond Boundaries: Indigenous Women and Clay

Contemporary Lecture
Part of the Gardiner Signature Lecture Series

This program is presented as part of the International Ceramic Art Fair (ICAF).

In celebration of Santee Smith’s artwork commission Talking Earth for the Gardiner Museum, Smithsonian curator Anya Montiel will discuss the role of Indigenous women artists in the field of contemporary ceramics and the Indigenous art world. Indigenous women artists, like Smith, Rose Simpson, and Raven Halfmoon, have been at the forefront of contemporary ceramic expressions. Their artworks continue to push boundaries of what constitutes Indigenous art. These artists also create multidisciplinary work that integrate organic materials and draw from Indigenous knowledge systems. The power of their works in clay speak to everlasting relationships towards land and community.

ABOUT ANYA MONTIEL

Anya Montiel is a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Recently, she curated the exhibition, Ancestors Know Who We Are, featuring the art of Black-Indigenous women artists. Anya received her doctorate and master’s degrees in American Studies from Yale University and bachelor’s degrees in Native American Studies and anthropology from the University of California at Davis. She has written for American Indian magazine, Art in America, First American Art Magazine, Journal of Modern Craft, and the Oxford Handbook of American Indian History.

ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL CERAMIC ART FAIR

The International Ceramic Art Fair (ICAF) makes its highly anticipated return to the Gardiner Museum, featuring works by emerging and established ceramic artists from a wide range of backgrounds, and an exciting slate of online and in-person programming.

ICAF 2022 celebrates connections between body, identity, and land. Global mythologies have long connected the human body to the earth, from a Nubian deity fashioning humans from clay to scientific explorations of clay as the first carrier of life. The human body is symbolically if not literally connected to clay, helping us understand who we are as individuals, a society, and a species.

As we navigate global health and environmental crises, understanding our bodily connection to the earth becomes increasingly urgent. Likewise, the experiences of being, or being in, a particular body defines many aspects of our lives, from health and ability, to experiences of discrimination and trauma. Our bodies help construct our identities, mediating, filtering, and generating our experiences.

Figurative ceramic sculpture is one of the most dynamic areas of practice today. Artists from across the spectrum are exploring new approaches, representations, and voices to help us see ourselves in ways that generate compassion, empathy, truth telling, and beauty.

This year’s Honorary Patron is internationally renowned Kenyan-born British studio potter, Magdalene Odundo.

Presenting Sponsor

Lead Sponsor

Supporting Sponsors

David Binet
Margaret McCain

Contributing Sponsors

Tamara Rebanks & James Appleyard

Hotel Partner