1. Roxanne Swentzell was born on December 9,1962 and is a Santa Clara Tewa Native American sculptor, ceramic artist, Indigenous food activist, and gallerist.
19 Facts About Roxanne Swentzell
1. 2.
Roxanne Swentzell's artworks are in major public collections and she has won numerous awards.
3.
Roxanne Swentzell has been commissioned to create permanent installations at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, the Museum of Wellington, New Zealand, and other venues, including the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia.
4.
Roxanne Swentzell was born at Taos Pueblo, New Mexico in 1962.
5.
Roxanne Swentzell's father was a German-American philosophy professor who taught at St John's College, Santa Fe.
6.
Roxanne Swentzell's mother, Rina Swentzell, was an activist, architect, scholar and artist born to a Santa Clara Pueblo family of artists.
7.
Roxanne Swentzell's uncle, Tito Naranjo, was an artist and scholar, while her other uncle Michael Naranjo, is a well-known sculptor blinded in the Vietnam War.
8.
Roxanne Swentzell grew up watching her mother harvest clay from the earth to create hand-coiled and pit-fired pots.
9.
In 1978, Roxanne Swentzell's parents enrolled her at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe.
10.
Roxanne Swentzell grew homesick after one year of study as she became dissatisfied and disillusioned with Portland's art scene.
11.
Roxanne Swentzell felt that artists in Portland separated art from their everyday lives, and their art did not thus reflect what surrounded them, whereas her own art was inspired by her life experiences.
12.
Roxanne Swentzell's son, Dr Porter Swentzell, is a professor and associate dean at the Institute of American Indian Arts.
13.
Roxanne Swentzell's daughter Rose Bean Simpson is a ceramic sculptor, who earned her MFA degree from Rhode Island School of Design; she has exhibited her work widely.
14.
In 1987, Roxanne Swentzell co-founded the Santa Clara Pueblo-based nonprofit organization Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute, where she serves as president.
15.
Roxanne Swentzell's sculptures depict emotional portrayals of her own personal experiences.
16.
Roxanne Swentzell has stated that she is not overly concerned that her clay is store-bought, as clay, no matter where it comes from, comes from the earth.
17.
In 1984, Roxanne Swentzell first participated in the annual Santa Fe Indian Market.
18.
Roxanne Swentzell was awarded the Market's Creative Excellence in Sculpture honor.
19.
Roxanne Swentzell's work is included in collections of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, Cartier in Paris, the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa, the Santa Fe Convention Center, and the Museum of Wellington in New Zealand.