Essential West Magazine
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Learn about the latest Medicine Man Gallery happenings; all about our artist, see our educational videos about native American art and fine art, watch podcasts with your favorite artists and check out art and history-related links we think you'll enjoy.
Exploring Art, Literature, History, Museums, Lifestyle, and Cultures of the West
It amazes me that four letters - W-E-S-T - have the ability to evoke an instantaneous emotional image. Simply the act of reading these four letters has caused you to form a narrative of your west.
Can the West be distilled to its essence - a simple direction or region? I believe not; it is a deeper dive of consciousness. How America sees itself and the world defines us. Diverse cultures, strong individualism, open spaces, and raw natural beauty marinated in a roughshod history have formed this region’s unique milieu.
Our online magazine’s primary focus is to feature relevant topics in art, literature, history, museums, lifestyle, and culture; lofty goals for any publication. No single magazine can be the beckon of all things western; it is a diverse, evolving paradigm that cannot be pigeonholed. As the publisher, I hope to be the buffalo that grazes the wide expanse of western sensibility and relay to you a glimpse of how I perceive our Essential West.
- Mark Sublette
Featured Article
Art Helps Reconciliation efforts at Fort Lewis College
Reconciliation. A coming together. An understanding. An apology. Reconciliation with and for Indigenous communities in the United States aims to address the historical and ongoing legacy and impacts of U.S. settler colonialism on Indigenous communities, repair relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, and foster healing for Indigenous communities. Reconciliation at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO is a...
From Oklahoma to Philly and Everywhere in Between: Ron Tarver's Black Cowboys
Who remembers the old Barbara Mandrell song “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool?” It was her response to the Urban Cowboy craze of early 80s when city slickers nationwide were accessorizing with Nocona boots and Stetson hats. Mandrell wanted people to know she was about that life long before John Travolta rode a mechanical bull in the 1980 movie. Consider Ron Tarver (b. 1957) the Barbara Mandrell of Black cowboy culture. Before Beyoncé, before Little Nas X, before Jamie Foxx, Tarver was working to bring Black cowboy culture to the mainstream. It was 1993 when he first began photographing...
Contemporary Native American Art Goes Global at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Having finally secured a place in American mainstream art and popular culture on its own terms, contemporary Native art is going global. Jeffrey Gibson’s representation of the United States with a solo show at the 2024 Venice Biennale – the every-other-year global Olympics of contemporary art – broke that layer of the “buckskin ceiling,” a term coined by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith for the historic limits placed on contemporary Native artists. Gibson was the first Native American so honored at the U.S. pavilion. Nicholas Galanin was featured in the 2023 Liverpool Biennial. Wendy Red Star had a gallery show in London...
Thomas Marcus: Wildstyle Graffiti Meets Tohono O'odham Basket Weaving
Public murals and petroglyphs. “Wildstyle” graffiti and woven baskets. Thomas “Breeze” Marcus’ (b. 1980) artworks bring these seemingly disparate worlds naturally together. Beautifully together. The Tohono O’odham artist observed the world around him, his Indigenous world from the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community and the street culture he grew up in in Phoenix. He made a cultural connection. “In graffiti, it's about this form of communication in the public – unsanctioned, against the grain, all of those things – but regardless, it is a form of communication through symbols and visual storytelling,” Marcus explained. “To me, it was no...
Central Avenue in Albuquerque: Something Like America
Central Avenue through Albuquerque: 1st Street through 8th Street. The old Route 66. Something like America. This is no fantasy. KiMo Theatre on Central Avenue in Albuquerque. Photo by Chadd Scott. Interspersed among the spectacular and historic Pueblo Deco KiMo Theatre, the funky/retro Arrive motel, Ex Novo Brewery, boutiques, neon, and coffee shops are homelessness and addiction. Empty storefronts. Prosperity alongside real pain. Something like America. Central Ave. through Albuquerque is seedy enough to be interesting without being dangerous. Visitors looking for upscale fantasy and the mirage that everything is just so with the country can find it across town...
San Antonio: City of Public Art
San Antoino marks the 30th anniversary of its Public Art Ordinance this year. Always best known for its history as the site of the Alamo, since enacting the Ordinance in 1996, the city has become one of America’s most art-forward. A proliferation of murals, installations, sculptures, and tilework are dispersed across an ever-expanding metropolis now numbering more than 1.5 million residents inside the city limits. The Public Art Ordinance allocates 1% of City of San Antonio capital improvement project budgets for the creation of public art, with artworks designed to reflect the community’s unique history, culture, and aspirations. Over the...
Historic "Grounded in Clay" Pueblo Pottery Exhibition Wraps Up Nationwide Tour in Albuquerque
“Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery” debuted in July of 2022 at the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture in Santa Fe. Over the preceding four years, the stunning exhibition traveled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Saint Louis Art Museum. The nation’s most elite arts institutions. The pots have finally come back “home,” wrapping up their tour at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque. See them there through February 21, 2027, or forever hold your peace. “Grounded in Clay” was curated by the Native American...
Artist Hopid at Museum of Northern Arizona
The Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff highlights a lesser-known chapter in Native American art history central to its region: Artist Hopid. An exhibition series on view through April 30, 2027, features work from the groundbreaking collective formed in 1973 by celebrated Hopi artists Michael Kabotie, Delbridge Honanie, Terrance Talaswaima, Neil David Sr. and Milland Lomakema. Artist Hopid in 1976. From left Honvantewa (Terrance Talaswaima), Dawakema (Milland Lomakema), Coochsiwukioma (Delbridge Honanie), Neil David Sr., Lomawywesa (Michael Kabotie). Photo credit Jessica Welton. “They all grew up on the Hopi reservation, went to different schools, but knew each other as youngsters,” Kelley...
Native Art from The Howard L. and Mary Ellen Meredith Collection Donated to the Oklahoma State Art Collection
The Oklahoma Arts Council announced last month what it described as “the most significant collection of artworks gifted to the Oklahoma State Art Collection in its history.” New and now on view free to the public at the Oklahoma State Capitol are 10 works created by some of the most influential and highly recognized Native artists connected to the state. Artworks come from The Howard L. and Mary Ellen Meredith Collection. The couple’s daughters, America Meredith and Samonia Byford, directed the gift. “My parents' house is near the Oklahoma State Capitol, so we've been familiar with the art collections and...
Randall Davey Home & Studio Added to National Network
What do you love most? For me, that’s art. How about second most? For me, native plants. Now think about what you love third most. In my case, nature and birds and hiking and northern New Mexico. All of things I love most magically come together in one place: Randall Davey Audubon Center and Sanctuary in Santa Fe. Davey (1887-1964) was a realist painter and leading figure of the Santa Fe Art Colony, a convening of artists from around the nation in the early 20th century. In 1920, Davey converted an 1847 Army sawmill into his studio and residence, living...