Scholder, Liberty # 3, nd., monotype 43in x 33 in. Courtesy photo

ART News:

SANTA FE — On the occasion of its 50th Anniversary celebration and having been named recently as one of the 10 best art galleries in the United States by Time Out, the globally respected international authority on urban culture, arts, and travel, LewAllen Galleries is honored to present an exhibition featuring works by Fritz Scholder (1937–2005) and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (1940–2025), on view from August 7 through September 5, 2026.

This exhibition features original paintings, watercolors, pastels, drawings, and monotypes, bringing together two transformative figures whose practices recalibrated the historiography of American Indigenous art. The works offer an opportunity to examine their distinct methodologies and perspectives on Indigenous identity, story-telling, and history in tandem. The exhibition honors both Fritz Scholder, whose Estate LewAllen Galleries is the representative, and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith with whom the LewAllen Galleries has had a long-standing relationship, most recently in collaboration with Garth Greenan Gallery in New York.

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s practice functions as a powerful form of historical revisionism. She became known in her work for what she referred to as her role as a “trickster”— a sacred shape-shifting role rooted in Indigenous lore and modernism alike—whereby she constructs dense, multi-layered visual records challenging the erasure of Native experiences within the national discourse. Through a rigorous synthesis of tribal knowledge, canonical iconography, and commercial ephemera, she creates a platform for both social commentary and environmental discourse. Smith’s work asserts the primacy of Native narratives, meticulously deconstructing imposed viewpoints to elevate the Indigenous perspective within the broader canon of American modernism.

Born on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana and a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith earned degrees in painting and art education, working subsequently as an artist, educator, and curator. Her artistic practice utilizes painting, printmaking, and mixed-media collage, frequently combining newspaper articles, commercial packaging, advertising, and iconography with paint applications. Addressing social, political, and environmental themes, Smith documents Indigenous narratives and examines conventional depictions of American history. In 2023, Smith’s retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York received international acclaim. Further, she was the first Native American invited to curate an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, The Land Carries Our Ancestors. Smith’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Brooklyn Museum, New York; The Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; and the Denver Art Museum, Colorado, among many others.

Fritz Scholder (1937–2005)

Beyond his original fame for having “broken the mold” in the way Native Americans are portrayed in fine art beginning in the 1960s that departed radically from traditional, stereotypical depictions of the mythic Indian and instead portrayed the reality of the Native American’s actual place in contemporary American society, Fritz Scholder’s contribution to American art also lies in profound, metaphysical interrogation of the Indigenous subject. Moving beyond the constraints of objective representation, Scholder employed a deliberate alchemy of figurative distortion, transforming the human form into a vessel for psychological and philosophical inquiry. His work bridges the liminal space between the known and the unknown, exploring the tension between cultural myth and personal reality. By imbuing subjects with a raw, visceral presence—drawing upon the emotional intensity of Expressionism—Scholder challenged the viewer through his art to confront the multifaceted realities of Indigenous life, as well as human identity more generally, asserting it as an evolving, complex, and unvarnished truth.

After studying with renowned Bay Area Figurative painter Nathen Oliveira, Fritz Scholder taught at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe during the mid-1960s. His paintings utilize bold colors, expressive brushwork, and flat compositions, while his printmaking practice includes lithography and monotypes. Characterized by a departure from traditional, romanticized, and stereotypical depictions of Native Americans, Scholder’s ground-breaking and provocative representations challenged historical tropes. Receiving international recognition during his career, Scholder held exhibitions in Japan, France, China, Germany, and at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Scholder’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution and the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California, among many others.

Spam, 1994, mixed-media and collage on paper, 15 in x 11 in. Courtesy photo