Arlo Namingha “Stories and Conversation”

David Richard Gallery

[Image: Arlo Namingha "Fifth World #8" (2019) Indiana limestone 12 x 15 x 5 in.]

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David Richard Gallery presents Arlo Namingha, Stories and Conversation, his first solo exhibition in New York in 17 years and his debut with David Richard Gallery. The presentation includes 19 new and recent sculptures and wall reliefs in a variety of carved and polished stones and wood. Namingha’s artworks are clean lined and minimalist, reductions of complex imagery such as the landscape, pueblo buildings, people, animals, butterflies and fish and how those images relate to cultural symbols and mythologies, historical and cultural timelines, ceremonies and beliefs, the fifth world as well as Mother Earth and the circle of life.

The five wall reliefs in this presentation are all made of wood with combinations of planed, cut, and carved surfaces in a variety of woods such as Jatoba, Sitka Spruce, African Mahogany, Zebra, Poplar, Yellow Heart Wood and Curly Maple. Each assemblage, mostly of geometric compositions are housed in sturdy, deep, black aluminum frames. The 14 pedestal sculptures include: eight works made of Indiana Limestone; one bronze; and one Texas shell stone. The remaining four sculptures are comprised of combinations of: Indiana Limestone, Utah picture stone, Texas Limestone, Texas Shell stone and Bass, Zebra, Poplar and African Mahogany woods.

Namingha’s artwork is influenced by the earth and landscape as well as general beliefs and symbols of the Tewa and Hopi Native Americans. The Tewa-speaking, Pueblo people live near the Rio Grande north of Santa Fe in New Mexico, which is the northeastern portion of the Hopi Reservation. Such influences are often a common thread of connectivity among and between Native American artists. Their cultures are often rooted in the land and beliefs that humans are from the earth and return to the earth, thus creating a circle of life and connection between all people from the past, present and future.

The earliest works of Namingha were carved kachina figures that he created alongside his grandparents. The kachina’s exemplify two important aspects of Namingha’s art, first, the cultural influences on his work as the kachina’s represent eternal messengers who communicate between earthly and spiritual beings and are a vital part of the Hopi teachings. Second, his later versions of these figures were simplified and reduced to lines and the essence of the figures, making them more contemporary and abstract while still retaining his cultural heritage. Both a hallmark of his approach and studio practice.

The kachina figures, perpetually are an important part of Namingha’s sculptures including several of the works in the current presentation. The wings of Butterfly and Warrior Butterly represent the two halves of a kachina face with the opposing negative spaces representing the eyes. Similarly, the sculpture Cultural Forms is comprised of a cylinder of Indiana Limestone with an interlocking rectangle of Zebra Wood to create an anthropomorphic resemblance of a kachina face, where the two opposing horizontal slices of negative space in each form creates the kachina’s eyes while the lower circular carve out in the cylinder creates the mouth.

However, the greatest influence on Namingha’s aesthetic and artwork was his father, Dan Namingha, and other artistic family members, as noted above. Dan Namingha, an established and highly collected Hopi painter and sculptor, has artworks included in the permanent collections of more than 30 major museums. Dan is a great-grandson to Nampeyo (1860-1942), considered to be the first internationally recognized Native American artist and often acknowledged for reviving the tradition of Hopi (Sikyátki Style) pottery; grandson to Dextra Quotskuyva Nampeyo (born September 7, 1928), the first Nampeyo potter to make commodity works for public sales; and his mother, Hisi Nampeyo, also an internationally recognized potter.

However, Arlo Nimingha’s work is also influenced by issues beyond his culture and home, his newest series are very much inspired by current events. While he may find the issues urgent or troubling, he sees hope in resolution through dialogue and interaction between people. Thus, several of the new series, including: Dialogue, Fifth World and Shift have works that can be assembled, rearranged and fragmented by the viewer and presented how they choose. This engagement with the artworks is essentially a dialogue and exchange of new ideas and new possibilities between the viewer and the artist. A tangible demonstration of how an artist can open up and provide a path for new ideas and compositional suggestions into his process and work through the viewer, who, in return, is not only expressing their opinion, but also putting themselves out there for open critique of such suggestions. All in all, the artist sees this healthy exchange of ideas as a metaphor for everyone to take such steps with the more consequential and pressing issues facing our respective families, hometowns, cultures and society.

The multicomponent and interactive works by Namingha noted above in the Dialogue, Fifth World and Shift series have a very interesting construction. Each of the subunits have smooth and polished exterior surfaces, yet the interior surfaces are rough and resulting from the elements being partially cut around the perimeter and then broken in a semi-uneven fashion such that when reassembled, they fit together and interlock to create a stable and solid single structure. Perhaps a metaphor for a positive outcome if people of diverging viewpoints would come together in conversation and share their differences, then maybe a single, solid and strong solution could be the result.

Arlo Namingha has exhibited extensively in galleries and museums across the US, including: Santa Fe, NM; New York, NY; Washington, D.C; Basalt, Aspen, Pueblo and Denver, CO; Scottsdale, Tuscon, Flagstaff and Phoenix, AZ; Santa Barbara and Palm Springs, CA; Reading, PA; Brockton, MA; Coral Gables and Naples, FL; Jackson Hole, WY; Salt Lake City, UT; Missoula, MT; and Midland, TX. He has also exhibited internationally in Russia, Monaco, Japan and China.

Namingha’s artworks are in the permanent collections of the following museums and institutions: Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey; U.S. Art in Embassy, Santiago, Chili; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California; Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado; Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, Arizona; U.S. Embassy, Bangui, Central African Republic; U.S. Embassy, Switzerland, Geneva; Southwest Museum/Autry National Center, Los Angeles, California; U.S. Embassy, Phnom Penh; Meridian International Center, Washington, D.C.; U.S. Embassy, Chisinau; Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico; Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey; Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs California; Raymond James Financial; Art in Embassy in Uzbekistan; Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, New Jersey and numerous private collections internationally.