Keri Ataumbi

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Keri Ataumbi
Born
Keri Sue Greeves

1971 (age 52–53)
NationalityAmerican
Other namesKeri Sue Ataumbi
Occupation(s)jewelry artist, painter, sculptor
Years active1990–present
Parent
RelativesTeri Greeves (sister)

Keri Ataumbi (born 1971) is a

Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. In 2015, she and her sister, Teri Greeves were honored as Living Treasures by the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, New Mexico
.

Early life and education

Keri Sue Greeves was born in 1971

Northern Arapaho part of Wind River Reservation and were strongly influenced by their parents. As a child, Keri watched her father pour metal in his forge for his sculpture[4] and was fascinated by his foundry. She learned both rebellion and an appreciation for the technical skill required for art from her father, and later said that she and her sister, "owe our careers to him".[5] She also saw her mother market Native American goods to try to bring them to a wider audience and learned to identify the characteristics of quality work.[4] She credits her mother for having taught her to celebrate her Kiowa heritage through her individual expression.[6]

jewelry making at a local community college, Ataumbi found her niche in the art world and began producing jewelry. [11]

Career

Ataumbi's paintings are mixed-media abstracts which often are focused on the opposing beauty and irony of her environment. For example, on a study trip in 2000 to Indonesia, she worked on a series featuring a crumbling wall in Bali, rather than painting the lush surroundings of the island.[1][5] While she was in Bali, she studied casting techniques with Nyoman Partha to improve her fabrication skills.[12] Her sculptural choices also challenge viewer's perceptions that she must use traditional and accepted Native icons and motifs to be a Native artist. One such sculpture, a Lucite table featuring cast iron legs from a mold of Ataumbi's arms, challenges the notion of stereotyping the work of Native artist, while another, featuring 12" Pillsbury Doughboys explores the parallels between iconic objects and the objectifying depiction of Native people in popular culture. Another piece, more traditional, which she created for the Heard Museum is a buckskin-lined silver handbag, decorated with gold and diamond stars to represent the Kiowa Big Dipper legend.[5]

Ataumbi's jewelry work typically starts with a theme and then she creates a series of related pieces. For example, in her Insect Series, pieces focused on bees, beetles, damsel flies, water bugs, and yellow jackets.[13] She does not strictly produce pieces with native motifs, believing that contemporary native jewelry does not have to reflect stereotypical design.[11] Instead, her pieces often explore the connections and disconnections of value systems. In indigenous cultures, items of value included things like elk teeth, or feathers, whereas the broader culture focuses on metals and gems. Ataumbi utilizes materials from both cultural perspectives in her work.[14] Though gold is one of her favorite mediums, she also works with silver and platinum combining metals with gemstones, buffalo horn, buckskin[15] or porcupine quills.[10] Her approach is artistic; rather than meticulous attention to stone setting, she combines textures like rose-cut and brilliant-cut diamonds for their artistic effect.[15] She is interested in mixing materials that combines elements "we as indigenous people hold valuable (elk teeth, buffalo, feathers, etc.) with elements considered valuable in the popular culture (diamonds, high-carat gold, precious stones, etc.). There is a beauty that happens in combining different value systems through material that is inclusive.[16]

One of her pieces, a mussel shell necklace from her Ocean Collection was featured in the touring exhibit, "Native Fashion Now",

Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Manhattan in 2016.[17][18] Ataumbi's Mommy's Collection is dedicated to reproducing some of the iconic pieces worn by her mother, who died in 2015. One of these was a silver ring originally marketed by Fred Harvey. Ataumbi's twist on the ring was to remake it in gold, setting a small diamond on the underside. It and a pair of earrings Ataumbi designed were worn by Melaw Nakehk'o at the premier of The Revenant in 2015.[17] Another piece from the Mommy's Series featured the painted likeness of her namesake and an interpretation of the clan fetish in the shape of a turtle Carrie Susie had made at Greeve's birth. The painting was combined with metalwork and won best in class in 2016 at the Santa Fe Indian Market.[19]

In addition to her own series work, Ataumbi has had several productive collaborative associations. In conjunction with

Shoshone-Bannock), Ataumbi worked on another earrings-ring-necklace set based on historic likenesses of Pocahontas. The mixed media set, which used beads, buckskin, diamonds, fresh water pearls, antique glass, gold and indigenous wampum, was purchased for the permanent collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art. In a second collaboration inspired by the sculpture For the Love of God by Damien Hirst, Ataumbi and Okuma created For the Love of Art, featuring a Marilyn Monroe ring and skull on a bracelet.[10] Though she and her sister, Teri, a noted beadworker, normally do not collaborate in their work,[20] the sisters jointly spoke about heritage and art at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian,[21] after they were honored as Living Treasures by the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture of Santa Fe in 2015.[22] The award, given by a division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs recognized the sisters, individually and collectively for their "museum-quality work", which incorporates a story-telling narrative of their cultural heritage.[6]

Selected Exhibits

Year Exhibit Host Location(s)
2017 "From my studio: Feathers to Diamonds" (Solo) Shiprock Santa Fe Santa Fe, NM[23]
2016-2017 "From the Belly of Our Being: Art by and about Native Creation" Oklahoma State University Stillwater, OK[24]
2015-2017 “Native Fashion Now” Peabody Essex Museum Portland Art Museum, Philbrook Museum of Art, National Museum of American Indian[25][26]
2008 "Ataumbi Metals" (Solo) Fourwinds Pittsburgh, NM[27]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b Pardue 2007, p. 50.
  2. ^ McGuire 1981, p. 1J.
  3. ^ Little 2017, pp. 38–39.
  4. ^ a b Little 2017, p. 39.
  5. ^ a b c Indyke 2004, pp. 52–54.
  6. ^ a b Bennett-Begaye 2015, p. 21.
  7. ^ a b c Little 2017, p. 40.
  8. ^ a b Wheelwright Museum 2017.
  9. ^ The Santa Fe New Mexican 1990.
  10. ^ a b c Little 2017, p. 38.
  11. ^ a b Little 2017, p. 41.
  12. ^ Pardue 2007, pp. 50–51.
  13. ^ Little 2017, p. 35.
  14. ^ Ataumbi 2018.
  15. ^ a b Little 2017, p. 36.
  16. ^ "Keri Ataumbi". UNUM Magazine.
  17. ^ a b c d Little 2017, p. 37.
  18. ^ a b Lieber 2016.
  19. ^ Little 2017, pp. 37–38.
  20. ^ Allaire 2018.
  21. ^ Abatemarco 2019.
  22. ^ Indian Country Today 2014.
  23. ^ "Shiprock Santa Fe Presents Keri Ataumbi & Robert Lee Morris". PRWeb. Retrieved April 23, 2021.
  24. ^ "From the Belly of Our Being: Art by and about Native creation - Oklahoma State University". museum.okstate.edu. April 14, 2020. Retrieved April 23, 2021.
  25. ^ "Native Fashion Now". pem.org. Retrieved April 23, 2021.
  26. ^ "Kiowa-Proud: Sisters in Action: Teri Greeves and Keri Ataumbi | School for Advanced Research". Retrieved April 23, 2021.
  27. ^ "Four Winds Gallery: Keri Ataumbi". Four Winds Gallery. Retrieved April 23, 2021.

Bibliography

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