Albuquerque
Jaune Quick-To-See-Smith
Created : 1997
Donated : 2003
Medium : Lithograph
Dimensions: 39 1/2 inx33 1/2 in
Located: 2nd Floor, Northeast Hallway
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith is a Native American visual artist, educator, curator, storyteller, art advocate, and political activist. She grew up on the Flathead Reservation in Montana and traveled around the Pacific Northwest and California with her father, who was a horse trader. Her name “Quick-to-See Smith” was given to her by her Shoshone grandmother as a sign of her ability to see and grasp things readily.
In 1976 she moved to Albuquerque where she studied at the University of New Mexico and founded the Grey Canyon Group of Contemporary Native American Artists. Her early works explored landscape with portraits of her horse, Cheyenne, incorporating artifacts like teepees, tools, pottery; and then later, eventually, collage and mixed media elements, such as bits of calico and muslin fabrics. Wire mesh joined her painted surfaces.
For nearly five decades she has used the mediums of painting, printmaking, storytelling, and sculpture to explore issues of land, racism, environmentalism, cultural identity and preservation, and personal history. These works are exhibited and collected internationally.
