In the evolving lexicon of contemporary Western art, Native Modernism stands as both a bold artistic movement and a reclamation of narrative. As a vital subgenre of the New West movement, Native Modernism bridges Indigenous tradition with modernist innovation — dismantling colonial expectations of what “Native art” should look like. But far from a recent development, this aesthetic has deep roots. Long before the Western art world formally welcomed Modernist aesthetics, Indigenous artists were exploring abstraction, geometry, symbolism, and innovation in visual form. In many ways, Native Modernism predates Modernism itself.
At its core, this genre resists simplification. It celebrates the complexity of Native identity in a post-colonial world, asserting that tradition and experimentation are not opposites, but intertwined.
The Foundation: IAIA and a New Era of Indigenous Innovation
Established in 1962, the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe became the central force behind the Native Modernist movement. More than a school, IAIA functioned as a revolutionary platform, encouraging Native artists to merge ancestral visual languages with contemporary mediums and methods. It was not about abandoning tradition, but rather evolving it on Native terms.
At IAIA, under the leadership of Lloyd Kiva New, students were taught to honor their cultural heritage while engaging in modernist expression — printmaking, abstraction, collage, expressionism, and conceptual art. This institutional support empowered a wave of artists to push beyond the expectations of "craft" or "folk art" and into the realm of fine art on the global stage.
The Trailblazers: Scholder, Cannon, and Quick-to-See Smith
The first generation of IAIA-affiliated artists to break into national recognition became icons of Native Modernism:
Fritz Scholder (Luiseño): Perhaps the most disruptive force in Native art, Scholder challenged stereotypes head-on with his bold, surreal, and often unsettling portrayals of Native figures. Using pop-inflected color and painterly abstraction, he forced the viewer to confront myth, identity, and marginalization.
T.C. Cannon (Kiowa/Caddo): A poetic visionary, Cannon blended modernist composition, Native symbolism, and political commentary. His work often depicted Native subjects in Western clothing, set against bright patterns—underscoring the contradictions and resilience of Native identity in modern America.
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Salish/Kootenai): A powerful voice in conceptual and political art, Smith uses collage, text, and painterly abstraction to explore land rights, identity, and historical trauma. Her work carries the radical intelligence of the modernist avant-garde with an Indigenous heartbeat.
These artists paved the way for Native creators to move beyond ethnographic expectation and into global contemporary discourse.
The Bridge Generation: Nieto, Red Star, and Namingha
Building on this momentum, a second wave of artists carried Native Modernism into the late 20th century and into the public consciousness:
John Nieto (Mescalero Apache descent): Known for his vivid palette and stylized outlines, Nieto painted Native figures, wildlife, and ceremonial imagery with expressive intensity. His electric color choices and bold brushwork place him firmly within the modernist lineage, while honoring his cultural heritage.
Kevin Red Star (Crow): Red Star’s work is deeply rooted in Crow culture, yet composed with a formal modernist eye. He fuses traditional dress and symbolism with flattened perspective and graphic rhythm, crafting works that feel at once ceremonial and contemporary.
Dan Namingha (Tewa/Hopi): A spiritual minimalist, Namingha often explores the intersection of land, cosmos, and identity through abstraction. With a deep reverence for Hopi cosmology, his work transcends representation, offering meditative, geometric expressions of Native worldview.
The New Vanguard: Abeyta, Singletary, Craig, and Harvey
Today’s Native Modernists are not only expanding the genre, they’re redefining its possibilities across media, scale, and global platforms.
Tony Abeyta (Diné): Working in oil, mixed media, and sculpture, Abeyta brings fluidity to the genre. His dreamlike landscapes and masked figures draw from Diné cosmology and modernist abstraction. Whether referencing sacred mountains or ancestral spirits, his work pulses with mythic resonance and contemporary depth.
Preston Singletary (Tlingit): A sculptor who works primarily in blown glass, Singletary fuses traditional Tlingit formline design with the modernist medium of glass art. His work is technically stunning and conceptually groundbreaking, elevating Indigenous storytelling through contemporary craft.
Sheldon Harvey, working across sculpture, painting, and mixed media, channels Navajo cosmology through contemporary forms. His Yei figures, spiritual abstractions, and symbolic compositions merge sacred tradition with bold, cubist linework. Harvey’s work bridges the metaphysical and the sculptural, asserting that Indigenous cosmology is powerful, present, and evolving.
Jordan Craig’s work merges pattern, geometry, and abstraction into striking meditations on memory, land, and Indigenous identity. Her meticulously structured compositions draw from Cheyenne and broader Indigenous textile traditions while embracing minimalist and modernist aesthetics. Craig’s atmospheric pattern worlds feel timeless, both deeply rooted and unmistakably contemporary.
Why Native Modernism Is Central to the New West
Unlike much of Western art history, which often romanticized Native people from the outside, Native Modernism reclaims the frame. These artists are not revising tradition, they’re continuing it on their own terms with their own tools.
Native Modernism asserts that Indigenous creativity is not static or frozen in the past. It is dynamic, intellectual, and in dialogue with global art movements. In the context of the New West, this genre provides the deepest reframing: from landscape to land rights, from cowboys to ceremony, from spectacle to sovereignty.