This inaugural exhibition celebrates the opening of a new gallery and showcases remarkable gifts of Native American baskets and Pueblo pottery to the Nevada Museum of Art. The baskets are a gift from Larry Dalrymple and Steve Moreno, who dedicated the past 45 years to acquiring baskets, personal histories, and photographs from modern and contemporary weavers of the Great Basin, Northern California, and the American Southwest. The pottery comes from Brenda and the late John Blom, who began their collection in the early 1990s, sourcing pieces directly from potters, galleries, and Pueblo villages in the Southwest.
To commemorate this special occasion, the exhibition also features 15 newly commissioned Native American baskets from weavers in the Great Basin and Sierra Nevada, including Leah Brady (Western Shoshone), Loretta Burden (Northern Paiute), Sue Coleman (Washoe), Norma Darrough (Western Shoshone), Gracie Dick (Northern Paiute), Julia Parker (Coast Miwok | Kashaya Pomo), Lucy Parker (Kashaya Pomo | Yosemite Miwok | Mono Lake Paiute | Coast Miwok), Melanie Smokey (Western Shoshone | Washoe), Sandra Eagle (Northern Paiute), Rebecca Eagle (Northern Paiute), Nila Northsun (Shoshone | Chippewa), and Jacqueline Rickard (Walker Lake Paiute).
Another highlight of the gallery is a major mural by Jack Malotte (Western Shoshone | Washoe) in collaboration with Lena Tseabbe Wright (Northern Paiute | Yurok). Contemporary artworks inspired by basketry and pottery traditions are interspersed throughout the gallery.
To accompany the exhibition, the Museum, in collaboration with the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California and publishing partner Rizzoli Electa, will publish The Art of Native American Washoe Basketry, a reissue of chapters on Washoe basketry and culture, first published in Tahoe: A Visual History in 2015.
This exhibition is co-curated by Melissa Melero-Moose (Fallon Paiute | Modoc) and Ann M. Wolfe, the Museum’s Andrea and John C. Deane Family Chief Curator and Associate Director.
