Three Contemporary Finds at Indian Market: Nipshank, Lasiloo and the Edds

Among the most inventive things I saw at Santa Fe Indian Market this weekend (from a discrete selection): Glen Nipshank’s work. Nipshank is Big Mountain Cree. His work (as seen at Robert Nichols Gallery) tends to folds and negative space used with extreme economy and fluidness, but this work that he showed at Market took things to a new level entirely, especially in the way the glazing and luminous finish appeared so specific to the forms. He has said in an artist’s statement that “there is no perfect world,” but he hopes his work can change peoples’ outlook on life, into a more playful one.

Glen Nipshank with his blue ribbon vessel

Alan Lasiloo is a Zuni potter who also has been experimenting with glazes that include patinations of gold. When I first saw Lasiloo’s work he was using strong but simple graphical lines on micaceous clay that turned the form into something at once simple and very compelling. He began to make white-clay vessels in the current style he is showing some two years ago, when he began to play with what some consider a firing error of “streaking” to great advantage. The newer work he brought to Market takes the shapes into a whole new realm as if the forms popped up from under the sea and are buoyant in tides. Glorious experiment.

The Edd Girls are four Dine sisters of whom the two eldest, Ruthie, 18, and Sierra, 16, have been showing at Market since they were five years old. Two  younger sisters, Chamisa, 12, and Santana, 10, also exhibit their paintings now. The freshness of the work is just incredible, and I also loved the pop culture influences in abundance, as well as the sense of humor. Great website, too at EddGirlArt.com.

Sierra Edd with a ribbon-winning painting

Ruthie Edd, from EddGirlArt.com