To Take Shape and Meaning Panel Discussion: Teri Greeves and Keri Ataumbi

Meet Teri Greeves (Kiowa) and Keri Ataumbi (Kiowa), two acclaimed artists featured in the exhibition To Take Shape and Meaning: Form and Design in Contemporary American Indian Art. The panel conversation is led by the exhibition’s guest curator, Nancy Strickland Fields (Lumbee). The three reflect upon the themes of To Take Shape and Meaning: rootedness, encoded commentary, genealogy, place of being, and revival and evolution.

About the artists
Keri Ataumbi (Kiowa), raised on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, was exposed to both traditional Native American aesthetics and contemporary art theory and practice from an early age. Her Kiowa mother ran a trading post and her Italian American father is famous for his bronze sculptures. Ataumbi attended Rhode Island School of Design before moving to Santa Fe in 1990. She worked as a landscape designer while attending the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) and received a BFA in painting with a minor in art history from the College of Santa Fe. She lives and works in the Cerrillos Hills outside Santa Fe.

Teri Greeves (Kiowa) was also raised on the Wind River Reservation. After graduating from UC Santa Cruz, she began her career as a beadwork artist, winning Best of Show at Santa Fe Indian Market in 1999. Recognition for her beadwork includes a feature in PBS’s Craft in America, the Dobkin Fellowship from the School of American Research, and a 2016 USA Fellowship in Traditional Arts. Greeves’s work is included in the collections of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, British Museum, Heard Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and Museum of Arts and Design. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Image on left: Keri Ataumbi (Kiowa), Tah’s Medicine, 2017, sterling silver, 18K gold, 22K gold, diamonds, rubies, sapphires, watercolor on vellum, antique watch crystal, and mother-of-pearl, H. 21 × W. 23/4 × D. 3/4 in., Courtesy of the artist
Image on right: Teri Greeves (Kiowa), “Between Worlds” Beaded Parfleche Vessel, 2016, rawhide and beads, H. 23 × Diam. 7 in., Collection of the Art Fund Inc. at the Birmingham Museum of Art, Gift of Martha Pezrow, AFI.105.2016