Jaune Quick-to-See Smith was a Native American visual artist known for her striking colors and strong shapes. On Feb. 12, Smith posthumously celebrated 46 years featured at the University of New Mexico’s artistic printmaking workshop, the Tamarind Institute. Originally opening its doors in 1960 in California, Tamarind moved to Albuquerque in 1970, with Smith starting her residence in 1980.
Tamarind Institute Director Diana Gaston said Smith has made approximately 40 editions.
“Our former director saw her work and invited her to come work with us, and that was about 40 years ago, so we’ve had this really long arc of time with her,” Gaston said.
A lot of her work includes motifs found in nature. Her 1980 piece, “Camas I,” features similar colors on the horse, bear and butterfly or moth. Each one of these animals have energy circles, colored in circles or blocks in parts of each animal. Standing out are the spots on the butterfly, as in nature, often bright colors are used to frighten away predators while also attracting possible mates.
“Coyote in Quarantine” was another mesmerizing piece on display. Created in 2020, Smith found inspiration for the piece from a drawing of a coyote under a blanket she made in 1994, but it was realized in 2020 when Smith sent a colleague a selfie of her head underneath a tablecloth.
Upon a first glance, it’s almost hard to tell it’s a coyote underneath the cloth. The cloth looks like it’s moving or dancing, and even though it’s a still image, it feels like it tricks the mind into thinking that there’s more than meets the eye.
Another piece highlighted was Smith’s 1995 piece, “In The Future.” This piece features a humanoid rabbit figure in red with a headless shadow behind it, as well as short excerpts of Gregor Mendel’s rules of segregation dominance, the principle dealing with how traits are passed down. This piece seemed to touch on subjects of ethnic identity, possibly related to Smith identity as an indigenous person.
The work featured the writing “In the future we will all be mixed bloods and mestizos,” unique not only because of how it was placed on the lithograph but also the use of the word mestizo — an archaic term for a person of mixed race descent, specifically someone of American Indigenous and Spanish descent — not usually used in conversation. The writing draws attention to the words and the struggle they represent.
Although her lithographs are at the gallery until April 10, Smith has a permanently installed piece as well: her book “All My Relations,” located in the entrance of The Tamarind.
“The book was commissioned by a University professor, Sabhankar Banerjee. He was, at the time, curating a pavilion exhibition to coincide with the Venice Biennale, and he wanted to do a kind of a recreation of an 18th century Dutch Reading Room, and instead of filling it with Western voices, he wanted to fill it with indigenous voices,” Gaston said.
Camillo Cretara is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on X @DailyLobo
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
