Roxanne Swentzell
Native American Sculptor

ROXANNE SWENTZELL — Roxanne Swentzell was destined to be a talented artist. Her family is full of renowned potters and sculptors. Her talent was recognized early and she was given the opportunity to spend two years at the Institute for American Indian Arts in Santa Fe before graduating from high school. She then went on to the Portland Museum Art School.

Roxanne Swentzell's first piece of art was a clay dog at the age of four. After formal training and the development of her own style, Swentzell began to create full-length clay figures that represent the complete spectrum of the human spirit. She feels that many people are out of touch with their environment and hopes relating to her expressive characters will help them get back in touch with their surroundings and feelings. Her figures represent a full range of emotions and irrepressible moods. Swentzell focuses on interpretative female portraits attempting to bring back the balance of power between the male and female, inherently recognized in her own culture. Additionally, she increasingly uses a powerful sense of humor to communicate.

Roxanne Swentzell's work is in such high demand that people line up by the dozens at her booth at shows like Santa Fe Indian Market where she won Best of Sculpture in 1999 with a larger-than-life bronze. Though steeped in her own culture, Swentzell's work demonstrates an astounding universality, speaking to people of all cultures.

Education

1980-1981
Portland Museum Art School, Portland, OR

1978-1980
Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM

1976
Apprenticeship in Sculpting with Michael Naranjo, Santa Clara Pueblo, NM

1971
Apprenticeship in Printing with Frank Flinn, Santa Fe, NM


Other Activities
1989-present
Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute, Secretary/Treasurer/Director, Santa Fe, NM, Artist-in-Residence


1979-1982
Santa Fe Indian School, New Mexico
Tesuque Pueblo Elementary School
San Juan Pueblo Elementary School
Santa Clara Pueblo Elementary School


Selected Honors and Awards
2003
Honoree-Originals 2003
National Museum of Women in the Arts, New Mexico Chapter
Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM

2002
Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market, Phoenix, AZ
• Best of Division – Pottery Division C
• Judges’ Choice Award

2000
Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market, Phoenix, AZ
• Best of Division, Best of Class, Sculpture
• Judges’ Choice Award

1999
Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA) Indian Market Santa Fe, NM
• 1st Place Award, Bronze Category
• Best of Division, Bronze and Other Metals
• Best of Classification, Sculpture

1998
SWAIA Indian Market, Santa Fe, NM
• First Place Award, Bronze Category

1997
Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market, Phoenix, AZ
• Featured Artist
• Poster Images "lt's Raining" and "Emergence of the Clowns"
SWAIA Indian Market, Santa Fe, NM
• 1st Place Award, Single figures Category, Non-Traditional Pottery Division
• 1st Place Award, Bronze Category

1996
SWAIA Indian Market, Santa Fe, NM
• 1st Place Award, Single figures Category, Non-Traditional Pottery Division
• 3rd Place Award, Ceramic Category, Sculpture Classification

1995
SWAIA Indian Market, Santa Fe, NM
• 1st Place Award, Single figures Category, Non-Traditional Pottery Division

1994
SWAIA Indian Market, Santa Fe, NM
• Wheelwright Museum and Joseph Block Sculpture Award
• 1st Place Award, Single figures Category, Non-Traditional Pottery Division

1986
SWAIA Indian Market, Santa Fe, NM
• Bob Davis Memorial Award
awarded to the most promising artist at Indian Market
• Four 1st Place Awards-Pottery and Sculpture Classifications

1980
• Joy Levine Art Scholarship Award, Santa Fe, NM


Selected Bibliography & Publications

Roxanne Swentzell: Extraordinary People, 2002. New Mexico Magazine Artist Series, Author: Gussie Fauntleroy

Southwest Art Official Indian Market Magazine, August 2001. Dottie Indyke “Roxanne Swentzell” pages 190-193.

UnArt Populaire Foundation Cartier, May 2001 pages 166-171.

Gaia’s Garden A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, Toby Hemenway 2001, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, pages 14, 15, 189.

Everson Ceramic National 2000 Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY page 67.

Kate McGraw “Grandaddy of Them All” Cowboys & Indians September 2000: Pages 113-114.

“Who Stole the Teepee?”, Fred Nahwoosky, Richard Hill, Heard Museum 2000, page 64.

Pueblo People Ancient Traditions Modern Lives, Marcia Keegan, 1999 Clear Light Publishers, NM page 184.

Santa Clara Portraits A Proud Tradition, Neil Chapman, Avanyu Passage West by Southwest 1999, pages 84-85.

Clay People Pueblo Indian Figurative Traditions, Jonathon Batkin, Wheelwright Museum 1999 “Roxanne Swentzell” pages 24-31.

Native Peoples “clay people” Gussie Fautleroy 1999, pages 27-30.

Pueblo Artists Portraits, Toba Pato Tucker, Museum of NM Press 1998, Cover “Roxanne” also pages 9-11.

“Roxanne Swentzell & Carol Krena” A book of writings by Carol & Roxanne, Four Winds Gallery 1997.

John Krena. In the Spirit of the Ancestors: The Kappmeyer Collection of Native American Art. Erie, PA: Erie Art Museum in conjunction with Four Winds Gallery, 1997.

Susan Peterson. Pottery by American Indian Women: The Legacy of Generations. New York: Abbeville Press in conjunction with the National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1997. Pages 195-201.

Roxanne Swentzell. "Hearing with Our Hearts." Chapter in Surviving in Two Worlds: Contemporary Native American Voices. Lois Crozier-Hogle and Darryl Babe Wilson, eds. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997.

Designer/Builder (A Journal of the Human Environment) March 1997, Kingsley and Jerilou Hammett, “Permaculture from Barren Land to Lush Oasis” pages 15-22, also cover page.

Lawrence Abbot. "Roxanne Swentzell," Indian Artist Fall 1997: Pages 20-25.

Permaculture Drylands Journal P.D.I. “Growing a Permaculture” by Vicki Marvick and Roxanne Swentzell, 1996.

A Question of Balance Artist and Writers on Motherhood, Rosenberg 1995 papier-mâché press “Roxanne Swentzell” pages 81-88.

The Straw Bale House, Athena Swentzell Steen, Bill Steen, David Bainbridge, 1994 A Real Goods Independent Living Book page 273.

Watchful Eyes: Native American Women Artists. Phoenix: Heard Museum, 1994. How I make My Sculptures Roxanne Swentzell, self-published 1993.

Roxanne Swentzell. "Our Home Flowering Tree (An Experimental Place in Sustainable Living Systems)." Self-published,1993.

Droppings An Occasional Publication of Sustainable Living Systems, Joel Glanzberg and Roxanne Swentzell, 7 issues 1991-1995, published by Flowering Tree.

Selected Exhibitions

2003
Celebrating Native American Women Artists
Smithsonian and Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA)
IAIA Museum, Santa Fe, NM

2003
Farewell to Indian Market Show
Lew Allen Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM

2003
Santa Fe Originals
Lew Allen Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM

2003
Juggling Worlds: Roxanne Swentzell
Poeh Center, Pojoaque, NM

2003
Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation
Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM

1985-88 and 1992-2002
Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA) Indian Market, Santa Fe, NM

2002
Recent Works by Roxanne Swentzell
Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ

2002
Shared Visions VI
Four Winds Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA

2002
“Changing Hands: Native American Arts Today”
American Craft Museum, New York, NY

2002
“Insprirations”, in honor of Lloyd Kiva New
Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Santa Fe, NM

2001
Shared Visions V
Four Winds Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA

2001
Un Art Populaire
Foundation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, France

2001, 2000
American Women Artists
Guest Artist, Group Show, Santa Fe, NM

2000
“At Play in the Field of Dimension”
Faust Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ

2000
Everson Ceramic National 2000
Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY

2000
American Women Artists
Group Show, Sorrento, Italy

2000
Roxanne Swentzell - New Sculptures
Hahn Ross Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

2000
“Who Stole the Tee Pee”
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, New York, NY

1999
“Clay People”
The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Santa Fe, NM

1999
American Women Artists Group Show, Guest Artist, Taos, NM

1999, 1998
Ohio Craft Museum, Columbus, OH

1998
Heard Museum North, 2nd Anniversary Show, Carefree, AZ

1998
Shared Visions IV, Four Winds Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA

1998
“Nourishing Hearts, Creative Hands: Contemporary Art by Native American Women”, Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA

1998
“Head Heart & Hands: Native American Craft Traditions in a Contemporary World”, Kentucky Art & Craft Gallery, Louisville, KY

1998
Roxanne Swentzell, Sculptor, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA

1998
Carnegie Museum of Art, "Pittsburgh Collects Clay," Pittsburgh, PA

1998
One Woman Show, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA

1985-88 and 1992-present
Southwest Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA) Indian Market, Santa Fe, NM

1997, 2000 - present
Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market, Phoenix, AZ

1997-1998
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.
Pottery by American Indian Women: The Legacy of Generations
• Curated by Susan Peterson
• Catalogue (see bibliography)

1995-1998
Traveling Exhibition - Indian Humor
• Sponsored by American Indian Contemporary Arts
San Francisco, CA
• Catalogue (see Bibliography)
• 12 venues including: Autry Museum of Western Heritage, Los Angeles, CA; University of Minnesota Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN; National Museum of the American Indian (Smithsonian Institution), New York, NY

1998
Gallery 10, Carefree, AZ
Native Commentary
• Group show with Bob Haozous, Marcus Amerman, Mateo Romero

1997
The White House, Washington, D.C.
Twentieth Century American Sculpture at the White House IV: Honoring Native America

1997
Four Winds Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
In the Spirit of the Ancestors: The Kappmeyer Collection
• Catalogue (see Bibliography)

1997
Healing in the Arts, Washington, D.C.
• Curated by Suzan Harjo, Morning Star Institute

1997
Robert F. Nichols Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Faces of Clay
• Two-person exhibit with Diego Romero

1996 - 1997
Society for Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, PA
Native American Traditions, Contemporary Responses

1996
Museum of Mankind, London, UK
Rain
• Poster Image: "It's Raining"

1996
Traveling Exhibit
Shared Visions: Native American Painters and Sculptors in the Twentieth Century
Sponsored by the Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ
• Curated by Margaret Archuleta and Rennard Strickland

1991 - 1996
• National and international venues including:
Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK; National Museum of the American Indian
Smithsonian Institution, New York, NY; McDougal Gallery, New Zealand

1994-1995
Bush Barn Art Center, Salem, OR
Museum at Warm Springs, Warm Springs, OR
Sisters of the Earth: Contemporary Native American Ceramics

1994
Heard Museum , Phoenix, AZ
Watchful Eyes: Native American Women Artists
• Catalogue (see Bibliography)

1994
Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Santa Fe, NM
Allan Houser Memorial Sculpture Garden Inaugural Show

1994
Women of Clay, Santa Fe, NM
• With Nora Naranjo-Morse

1993
The Museum of the Blackhawk, "Visions and Voices," Blackhawk, CA


1990
Praise Song Gallery, Fort Mason Center, "Roxanne Swentzell: Sculptor," San Francisco, CA

1989
Gallery Studio 53, One-woman Show, New York, NY

1988
Gorman Museum, UC Davis, Four Generations of the Naranjo Family, Davis, CA


1982
St. John's College Gallery, One-Woman Show, Santa Fe, NM

1982
Arriot Gallery, New Mexico Highlands University, One-Woman Show, Las Vegas, NM

1980
Institute of American Indian Arts, One-Woman Show, Santa Fe, NM


Public Collections
• Cartier, Paris, France
• Museum of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
• Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ, USA
• Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO, USA
• Josyln Museum of Art, Omaha, NE, USA


Current Gallery Representation
• Galleria Silecchia, Sarasota, USA
• Four Winds Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
• Hahn-Ross Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, USA
• Faust Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
• Blue Rain Gallery, Taos, NM, USA
• Tribal Expressions, Arlington Heights, IL, USA

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