Western Art Surprises Abound in 12th SITE SANTA FE International
By Chadd Scott on
The 12th SITE SANTA FE International isn’t a Western art exhibition, but it’s not not a Western art exhibition. That lineage runs too deep here. Too deep for International curator Cecilia Alemani, an Italian living in New York, to overlook.
Thankfully.
Among the city-wide presentation of artworks made by artists from India, and China, and Europe, are artworks made by living and historic artists from Santa Fe, throughout New Mexico, and across the West. In no way do they clash. Global and local needn’t be an either/or in Santa Fe, historically a place of international exchange going back to the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro connecting Santa Fe to Spanish colonial Mexico City, and long predating that with Indigenous trade routes linking the Pueblos to tribal nations across the continent.
I visited the International on its opening weekend, June 26 through 28. Not surprisingly, the exhibition’s contemporary and historic Western art spoke to me most deeply. If you find yourself in Santa Fe between now and the International’s closing on January 12, 2026, here are the top Western artworks to see.
Simone Leigh sculpture (foreground) with Helen Cordero storyteller ceramics (background) installed at SITE SANTA FE as part of 12th SITE SANTA FE International. Photo by Brad Trone.
SITE SANTA FE
The compatibility between traditional Western art and avant-garde international contemporary art achieves an apex with a grouping of Helen Cordero’s (1915–1994; Cochiti Pueblo) ceramic storytellers in a gallery inside SITE SANTA FE with two of Simone Leigh’s (b. 1967, Chicago) monumental sculptures celebrating Black women from West Africa. Leigh represented the United States at the 2022 Venice Biennale, the every other year Super Bowl of contemporary art; Alemani served as curator for that Biennale.
Cordero was one of the first – if not the first – to popularize the storyteller figure in Pueblo pottery. Surely, you’ve seen storytellers since. An adult sits with legs out in front, children crawling all over her or him, about to tell a story. The motif has become exceedingly popular.
As traditional as Pueblo pottery is, storytellers didn’t come along until the mid-20th century, confounding notions of historic vs. contemporary, demonstrating how Native art has constantly evolved.
Cordero was born more than 50 years before Leigh, but their lives overlapped for nearly 30. Would Cordero be considered an “elder” artist or a contemporary? Leigh is from Chicago, Cordero from Cochiti. Big difference. Both are artists, however. Minority women to boot. Similar experiences there.
These are the sort of thoughts deft curation encourages.
Also on view in the gallery with Cordero and Leigh are a series of six Plains warrior shield etchings by poet N. Scott Momaday’s (1934–2024; Kiowa/Cherokee). These were a revelation to me. I was completely unaware anything of the sort existed. They are composed of a dramatically expressive lines and marks, vibrant colors, and Momaday’s only partially legible text.
N. Scott Momaday 'Star Shield' etching on view as part of 12th SITE SANTA FE International. Photo by Chadd Scott.
The outstanding exhibition handbook – be sure to pick one up if you visit – explains how Momaday learned painting by watching his father paint in the traditional Kiowa way. The handbook entry was written by Momaday’s daughter Jill, and details how shields were medicine for the warriors who carried them. These etchings put off those vibes. They are powerful. Momaday died in Santa Fe last year.
The International mines the connection between literature and visual art throughout. Another example at SITE comes from Pulitzer Prize winner Willa Cather (1873–1947) who visited the Southwest six times between 1912 and 1926. What she saw there inspired 1927’s “Death Comes for the Archbishop,” based on the life of the first bishop of the diocese of Santa Fe. Her circa 1924 tourist Santa Fe tourist map, “The Most Wonderful 50 Mile Square in America” is a gem.
Flat Style Paintings
Much has been said and written about the Dorothy Dunn/Santa Fe Indian School “flat style” paintings. A white woman teaching Indigenous young people to create art strictly in a style that leaned into white people’s tropes of Native life and was produced primarily to sell to white tourists on Native land is problematic in all kinds of way. At the same time, the beauty and skill of the artworks produced are equally undeniable.
To its great credit, the International presents wonderful paintings from two of the great New Mexico “flat style” artists with dignity: Pablita Velarde (1918–2006, Santa Clara Pueblo) and Pop Chalee (1906 – 1993, Taos Pueblo). Chalee’s paintings are further marginalized as “Bambi art” – stylized blue deer with oversized eyes and eyelashes, reminiscent of the famous Disney cartoon. Walt Disney collected Chalee’s artwork’s prior to creating the film and its impossible thinking the legendary character wasn’t influenced – if not taken outright – from Chalee’s paintings.
Pop Chalee painting on view as part of 12th SITE SANTA FE International. Photo by Chadd Scott.
Chalee’s deer have been criticized through the years as unsubstantial and overly commercial and almost silly, but time has a way of righting things, and here they are in a robust survey featuring the leading contemporary artists from around the globe, where they belong, continuing a trend of historic Native American artists being included in the top collections, museums, and presentations of global modern and contemporary art.
Beloved contemporary Native and Western artist Tony Abeyta was greatly admiring Chalee’s paintings on one of my visits to the show.
Additionally on view at SITE are spectacularly colored, precise, “flat” paintings from Awa Tsireh (b. 1898–1955, San Ildefonso Pueblo) and Julian Martinez (1879 – 1943, San Ildefonso Pueblo). Their paintings are rich in symbolism. It’s an odd claim to fame, but Tsireh is the great painter of skunks. In Pueblo culture, the skunk often represents dark clouds and the blessed coming of rain.
Before leaving SITE, spend time with three of Agnes Pelton’s (1881–1961) cosmic, bewitching paintings of the New Mexico desert. She was associated with the short-lived Transcendental Painting Group working around the state between 1938 and 1942.
Nearby is another TPG artist, Florence Miller Pierce. She was a teenager when she joined the group as its only official female member. Her delicate, ethereal painting straddles the biomorphic and extraterrestrial. Will Wilson’s gruesome series of New Mexico uranium mining sites face it.
Guillermo Galindo artworks installed at Finquita as part of the 12th SITE SANTA FE International. Photo by Brad Trone.
Wheelwright Museum and Tesuque
Beyond SITE SANTA FE, where admission is always free, two International host sites are worth a visit for Western art lovers.
The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian always rewards guests, if for no other reason than the world’s greatest collection of Southwestern jewelry. As part of the exhibition, two of Raven Halfmoon’s (b. 1991, Caddo) monumental ceramic female figures are installed outside the Museum. One, Soku & Nash (Caddo – Sun & Moon) (2022), faces Sun and Moon Mountain.
Inside, paintings from Emmi Whitehorse (b. 1957, Navajo) and a room-filling Nora Naranjo Morse (b. 1953, Kha’P’o Owenge (Santa Clara Pueblo)) fabric sculpture composed of discarded items sourced in the Jornada del Muerto (Dead Man’s Journey) region of southern New Mexico stand out.
Six miles north of Santa Fe, the small town of Tesuque hosts International artists at a place called Finquita. Punch “1508 Bishop’s Lodge Road, Tesuqe, NM” into your GPS. Admission here is also free.
Two large installations challenge easy Western art definitions. Guillermo Galindo (b. 1960, Mexico City, Mexico) has crafted a magnificent, suspended sculpture using charred wood from a 2024 New Mexico wildfire. The sculpture, and a nearby mural, both reference Pablo Picasso’s iconic painting Guernica (1937). If the artist isn’t “Western” and the subject isn’t “Western,” but the material is deeply “Western,” is it “Western” art?
How about David Horvitz’ (b. 1980, Los Angeles) flock of wingless birds (2025) in the adjacent room? He’s placed 4,555 glass marbles on the floor in remembrance of the 4,555 men imprisoned in Santa Fe as part of the barbaric system of concentration camps set up to detain American residents and citizens of Japanese descent across the Western U.S. during World War II. The artist’s grandmother was interned in a similar ad hoc prison known as Camp Amache in Grenada, CO.
“Western” artist, “Western” subject, “Western” art?
Decide for yourself.
