Zoë Marieh Urness facts for kids
Zoë Marieh Urness (born in 1984) is a talented photographer with Alaskan Tlingit and Cherokee Native American roots. She takes amazing pictures of modern Indigenous people. In her photos, they wear traditional clothes and are often in natural settings.
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Early Life and Learning
Zoë Urness was born in Washington in 1984. When she was four, her great-great uncle and aunt adopted her and raised her. They made sure she learned a lot about tribal arts and history. She went to the Alaskan Native Cultural Heritage Association in Seattle from kindergarten all the way through high school. This meant her Indigenous education was a very important part of her childhood.
While other kids had sports practices, Zoë and her twin sister would meet with other Tlingit young people and elders. They would put on their traditional clothes, learn, practice, and share their old songs and dances. She traveled around Washington state, the United States, and even Europe with her tribe. She performed and shared their stories as a cultural ambassador. These experiences really shaped her and later became the main idea behind her photography.
When Zoë was seven, her grandmother gave her a camera. Taking pictures quickly became her biggest passion and what she wanted to do for a job. She went to college and earned art degrees from Skagit Valley College in Washington and the Brooks Institute of Photography in California.
Starting Her Photography Career
After finishing college in 2008, Zoë first wanted to be a magazine photographer. She started working freelance in Santa Barbara and Seattle. She took photos for magazines like Outside and Trend.
Early in her career, she studied the work of Edward S. Curtis. He was a famous photographer who took pictures of Native American people a long time ago. He thought Indigenous cultures might disappear. His black-and-white photos of Native people in their traditional clothes are some of the oldest and most respected pictures of Native Americans. Zoë saw herself and her own tribal members in Curtis's images. She decided to dedicate herself to capturing and telling the stories of Native people and cultures as they are today.
In 2014, she started a Kickstarter campaign for her first big photo project. It was called 'Native Americans: Keeping the Traditions Alive'. The goal was to "highlight languages that were in danger of being lost, using videos and photos." For this project, she photographed tribes across the US. She visited the Havasupai people at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and the Hopi people at Second Mesa. She also photographed the Apache Crown Dancers at Monument Valley and Alaskan natives at the Biennial Celebrations in Juneau. Zoë became very interested in showing the special ways each tribe expressed their culture and traditions, connected to their homelands.
Career Highlights and Achievements
Zoë Urness has shown her work in art exhibitions both in the US and around the world. Her photos have been in major publications, bought by museums, and displayed in galleries. She has also taken part in many Native art shows and markets.
Some of her biggest achievements in the art world include showing her Alaskan work at the Indigenous Fine Art Market and Santa Fe Indian Market for many years. She won "Best in Division" and "Best in Category" at the Santa Fe Indian Market multiple times. She has also been recognized by the Autry Museum of the American West in California, the Art Basel fair in Miami, the Native Treasures Indian Arts Festival, and the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market in Arizona.
In the world of galleries and museums, she has shown her work at Photo L.A. SPECTRUM and other galleries in New Mexico, Arizona, and the UK. This includes the ZOHI Gallery in Santa Fe, NM, which she co-owned. Her photo "December 5th, 2016: No Spiritual Surrender" was bought by two museums: the Autry Museum of the American West and the Birmingham Museum of Art. From 2017 to 2020, her work was also part of six national and international traveling exhibitions. These shows visited galleries and venues in places like Russia, Washington, D.C., California, and New Mexico. A group of her photographs is part of the Tia Collection in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Her photograph "Dec. 5, 2016: No Spiritual Surrender" was taken at the Oceti Sakowin Camp on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation during the Dakota Access Pipeline Protests. This photo was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography by World Literature Today magazine. It also appeared on the cover of the magazine's May 2017 issue, titled "New Native Writing: From Wounded Knee to Standing Rock". She also received awards from the Autry Museum and SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market between 2015 and 2017.
In March 2022, Zoë Urness received the Sony Alpha+ Female Grant for her "Indigenous Motherhood" project. She is currently working on this new series of photos.
Personal Life
Zoë Urness welcomed her first child in the winter of 2021.
Awards
- 2018: Pulitzer Prize Nomination, Feature Photography Cover of World Literature Today May – August 2017
- 2017: Autry Museum of the American West, Best in Photography, 1st place
- 2016: SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market, Best in Photography, 1st place
- 2016: Autry Museum of the American West, Acknowledgement
- 2015: SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market, Best in Black and White Photography, 1st place
Museum Acquisitions
This section lists the museums that have bought Zoë Urness's photographs for their collections.
"Raven Tells his Story in the Fog"
- 2021: Tacoma Art Museum – Tacoma, Washington
- 2018: Western Spirit Scottsdale's Museum of the West – Scottsdale, Arizona
- 2017: Birmingham Museum of Art: Birmingham, Alabama
"December 5th, 2016: No Spiritual Surrender"
- 2018: Autry Museum of the American West, 40x32 Desaturated Metallic C-Print mounted to plexiglass Edition 1 of 1
- 2017: Birmingham Museum of Art, 50x40 Metallic C-Print mounted to plexiglass Edition 1 of 1
Galleries
These are some of the art galleries where Zoë Urness's work has been shown.
- 2018: Webster Collections – Santa Fe, New Mexico
- 2017 to present: Altamira Fine Art, Scottsdale, Arizona / Jackson Hole, Wyoming
- 2017: Zohi, Santa Fe, New Mexico
- 2016 to present: Mountain Trails Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico
- 2015 to 2017: Rainmaker Gallery, Bristol, United Kingdom
- 2015: Manitou Galleries, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Exhibitions
This section lists some of the art shows and exhibitions where Zoë Urness's photographs have been displayed.
"Hearts of our People: Native American Women in the Arts", Traveling Group Exhibition produced by Minneapolis Institute of Art
- 2020 Fall: Renwick Gallery / Smithsonian Institution Washington DC
- 2020 Summer: Philbrook Museum of Art, Oklahoma
- 2020 Spring: Fowler Museum UCL A, California
- 2019- 2020 September to January: First Center of Visual Arts Nashville, Tennessee
- 2019 May to August: Minneapolis Institute of Art Minneapolis, Minnesota
"Borrowing the Earth", Russian Traveling Group Exhibition (10 images provided by artist)
- 2019 February to March: Orenburg Fine Arts Museum
- 2019 March to April: Ufa Fina Arts Museum
- 2019 May to June: Izhevsk
- 2019 July to August: Noviy Urengoy
- 2019 August to September: Noyabrsk
- 2019 September to October: South Urals History Museum in Chelyabinsk
- 2019 November to December: Tyumen Fine Arts Museum
"Beyond Standing Rock", Group Exhibition
- 2019 February to August: Santa Fe, New Mexico
"Zoe Urness: Keeping the Traditions Alive", Solo Exhibition
- 2017–2018 November to May: Booth Western Art Museum, Cartersville, Georgia
"Standing Rock: Art and Solidarity", Group Exhibition
- 2017–2018 May to February: Autry Museum of the American West, California
"Untitled", Joint show with Navajo Painter Tony Abeyta
- 2017 March: Altamira Fine Art, Scottsdale, Arizona
