Past Archives | Heard Museum
ADVANCING AMERICAN INDIAN ART

He‘e Nalu | The Art and Legacy of Hawaiian Surfing

He‘e Nalu: The Art and Legacy of Hawaiian Surfing explores the Indigenous origins of surfing through the presentation and interpretation of historic material made by notable cultural practitioners as well as new contemporary artwork and site-specific installations created by leading Indigenous Hawaiian artists. The stories and histories of surfing will be shared through a Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) perspective through the process of mo`olelo, the method of storytelling “how it came to be.”

The exhibition is organized by guest curator Carolyn Kuali`i (Kānaka Maoli) and Heard Museum Assistant Curator Velma Kee Craig (Diné), with artwork by Kānaka Maoli artists Solomon Enos, Lehuauakea, Daniel Ikaika Ito, Pōhaku Kaho`ohanohano, Christopher Kahunahana, Stephen Hokulani Kupihea, Duke Aipa, Clifford Kapono, Ha`a Keaulana, Ian Kuali`i, Nicole Naone, Rick San Nicolas, Tom Pōhaku Stone, and Cory Kamehanaokalā Taum, and skateboard artwork by Rowan Harrison (Diné/Pueblo), James Johnson (Tlingit), Di’Orr Greenwood (Diné), Daryl Tom (Diné), Albert Sloan, Jr. (Diné), Missy Mahan (Tohono O’odham), and Kandis Quam (Zuni Pueblo/ Diné).


He‘e Nalu | The Art and Legacy of Hawaiian Surfing

January 6, 2023 - July 16, 2023

He‘e Nalu: The Art and Legacy of Hawaiian Surfing explores the Indigenous origins of surfing through the presentation and interpretation of historic material made by notable cultural practitioners as well as new contemporary artwork and site-specific installations created by leading Indigenous Hawaiian artists. The stories and histories of surfing will be shared through a Kānaka ...

Between The Lines: Art from the No Horse ledger book

May 6, 2022 - March 23, 2023

Between the Lines: Art From the No Horse Ledger Book presents a selection of 28 drawings from a Cheyenne/Arapaho ledger book created between the late 1870s and 1882. Painting has long been utilized as a tool by Indigenous peoples in passing down knowledge and sharing cultural stories. As settler Americans expanded into the Great Plains, ...

Southwest Silverwork, 1850-1940

February 19, 2022 - March 5, 2023

Exploring rarely seen works from the Heard Museum’s collection Southwest Silverwork, 1850-1940 documents nearly a century of the evolution of Native silverwork from its earliest years through the decades prior to World War II. A number of unique pieces of Navajo and Pueblo jewelry and other silver items from the museum are on view, tracing ...

Elegant Vessels: A Century of Southwest Silver Boxes

October 7, 2022 - March 5, 2023

Indigenous silverwork has long been highly sought after, dating back to as early as the 1850s. Elegant Vessels: A Century of Southwest Silver Boxes showcases these stunning works of art, spanning almost a century. By the late 1800s, silver jewelry predominated, but other silver forms included functional items such as tobacco canteens and powder chargers. ...

Remembering the Future: 100 Years of Inspiring Art

October 24, 2021 - November 6, 2022

Remembering the Future: 100 Years of Inspiring Art showcases painting and sculpture produced by leading American Indian artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Each work in the exhibition draws from the Heard Museum’s permanent collection and reflects an artistic response to the challenges and opportunities presented by the decade in which it was created. ...

George Catlin on Indigenous Land

May 7, 2021 - April 24, 2022

Like many Western artists who followed him, George Catlin (1796-1872) traveled the West to make a record of the region’s Indigenous peoples. His goal was to preserve for future generations a pictorial history of Indigenous cultures, which he accomplished by painting portraits of peoples from nearly 40 tribes. The exhibition George Catlin on Indigenous Land ...

Toward the Morning Sun: Navajo Pictorial Textiles from the Jean-Paul and Rebecca Valette Collection

November 5, 2021 - March 6, 2022

Opening on Nov. 5, 2021, the Heard Museum will present Toward the Morning Sun: Navajo Pictorial Textiles from the Jean-Paul and Rebecca Valette Collection. The 2018 gift to the museum from Jean-Paul and Rebecca M. Valette of their acclaimed collection includes textiles primarily woven during the first three decades of the 20th century. The Valettes ...

Behind the Mask: Indigenous Artists Speak Out

October 10, 2020 - January 31, 2022

Artists across the globe are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in creative ways, through music, poetry, performance and a variety of art forms. The face masks worn to prevent spread of the virus present a blank canvas for artists seeking to bring attention to the devastating effects the virus has had on Indigenous nations and ...

Small Wonders

March 18, 2021 - January 2, 2022

The exhibition Small Wonders provides the opportunity to see a range of intricately made small-format works including jewelry (rings, brooches, earrings and buckles) and specialty items such as silver seed pots, fetishes or stone carvings, and silver items in miniature. Each is shaped in silver, gold or from a variety of gemstones, and all are ...

Sonnet of Lament: Chip Thomas and Esther Belin

December 4, 2020 - November 16, 2021

This collaborative work between Chip Thomas and Esther Belin recounts the effects that the COVID-19 global health crisis has had on Indigenous communities and the ways in which it has illuminated the status and lived reality that Indigenous peoples face. The work itself is arresting in its visuality and layered in its composition. An unidentified ...