Jack Malotte: Artist Archive

Born in 1953 in Schurz, Nevada, Jack Malotte spent his early childhood in the eastern Nevada community of Lee, before moving to the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony as a youngster. Malotte’s parents are both descended from the Te-Moak Band of Western Shoshone from South Fork, Nevada. His mother is also part Washoe. After graduating from Earl Wooster High School in Reno in 1971, Malotte studied art at the California College of Arts and Crafts (known today as the California College of the Arts) in Oakland, California and has been a practicing artist his entire life. During the 1980s, Malotte became well known for his artwork that focused on political issues faced by Native American people seeking to protect and preserve access to their ancestral lands.

While Malotte spent most of his early life in western Nevada, the twenty years he has lived in Duckwater might be his longest and most sustained period of artistic production to date. Living close to the land, without the distractions or restrictions of an urban environment, Malotte has freely embraced a variety of artistic processes and subjects. Making art has always been his number one priority. “I was in it to do the work, to do artwork,” Malotte says. “I’ve worked other jobs, but I’ve always had those just to keep doing artwork. I wasn’t in it for the money. I just want to do good work.” Malotte admits he has witnessed “the best and the worst” of life in the Great Basin. It is this broad and diverse spectrum of experience—both the beautiful and the devastating—that he has fully incorporated into his life’s work.

Artist Jack Malotte (Western Shoshone and Washoe) has been a practicing artist his entire life working in multiple media, including printmaking, painting, pen and ink, and public murals. Malotte makes artworks that celebrate the landscapes of the Great Basin with a unique focus on contemporary political issues faced by Native people seeking to protect and preserve access to their lands. He infuses wry humor into his work, even as he delves into subject matter that is sometimes serious and sobering. Artwork themes include militarization, Native activism, treaty rights, environmental justice, kinship, tradition, and protecting sacred sites. His most recent work reconsiders historical narratives and myths of the American West, Western Shoshone and Washoe traditions and legends, and continues to highlight longtime political, environmental, and legal struggles of Native communities.

Materials include photographs, posters, brochures, sketches, drawings, mock-ups, and pamphlets.

• CAE1906: Great Basin Native Artists
• CAE2101: Harry Fonseca: Stone Poems