Emmi Whitehorse facts for kids

Movement by Emmi Whitehorse, 1989, Honolulu Museum of Art

Emmi Whitehorse (born in 1957) is a talented Native American painter and printmaker. She is a member of the Navajo Nation and was born in Crownpoint, New Mexico. Today, she lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her art often combines her Navajo heritage with abstract ideas, showing her deep connection to nature.

Life and Career

Emmi Whitehorse grew up on wide-open lands northeast of Gallup, New Mexico. Her family spoke only the Navajo language.

As a child, she spent time herding sheep and exploring ancient ruins. This helped her notice how light changes the world around us. She saw how clouds made canyons darker, how sunlight lit up tiny plants and animals, and how the horizon disappeared at sunset. She also loved the colors found in traditional Navajo weaving.

In 1980, Emmi earned her first degree in painting from the University of New Mexico (UNM) in Albuquerque. She then earned her master's degree in art in 1982, also from UNM. For her master's, she focused on printmaking and also studied art history.

Emmi Whitehorse's Artistic Style

Whitehorse's paintings use her own special symbols and ideas. These come from her thoughts about the natural world around her. She mixes Navajo ways of looking at the universe with abstract art. Her work is not about politics.

She has said that her art feels a bit wild and random. When she paints, she often moves the paper around. This means she doesn't know which way is up or down as she creates.

Emmi Whitehorse says her grandmother, who was a weaver, was the most important artist in her life. She also uses ideas from Navajo dry paintings and weaving in her own work. Her paintings are usually oil paint on paper, which is then put onto canvas.

An example is her painting Movement from 1989, which is at the Honolulu Museum of Art. This painting shows the rich, dreamy, and calm abstract style she is known for. Her art can be found in many public collections around the world. These include the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Heard Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Venice Biennale 2024

In 2024, Emmi Whitehorse was featured in a very important art show called the Venice Biennale. The show's director, Adriano Pedrosa, highlighted her as an Indigenous artist. He explained that Indigenous artists are "frequently treated as a foreigner in his or her own land."

She showed landscape paintings like Cópia (2023). These paintings had strong messages about protecting the environment and standing up against colonialism. Many news outlets, including The New York Times, wrote about Emmi Whitehorse and her important role in the exhibition.

Selected Exhibitions

Emmi Whitehorse has shown her art in many places. Here are some of her important solo and group exhibitions:

Solo Exhibitions

• 2006: Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO
• 2001: Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE
• 1997: Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
• 1991: Neeznáá, The Wheelwright Museum, Santa Fe, NM

Group Exhibitions

• 2024: Venice Biennale, Central Exhibition, "Foreigners Everywhere"
• 2021: Shared Ideologies at the Muscarelle Museum of Art in Williamsburg, VA
• 2019: Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
• 2011: Pressing Ideas: 50 Years of Women's Lithographs from Tamarind, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.
• 2007: Off The Map: Landscape in the Native Imagination, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, New York, NY
• 2003-04: Uncommon Legacies: Native American Art from the Peabody Essex Museum (traveling show)
• 1991: Presswork, The Art of Women Printmakers, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC (traveling show)
• 1982: Modern Native American Abstraction, The Philadelphia Art Alliance Gallery, Philadelphia, PA (traveling show)
• 1980: Grey Canyon Group, Wheelwright Museum, Santa Fe, NM (traveling show)

See also

In Spanish: Emmi Whitehorse para niños