Michael Namingha

My photography based Altered Landscape series began in 2019. It is in two parts, the first is based on my research on oil and natural gas extraction that is occurring in the northwest corner of New Mexico, where in 2014 NASA discovered the largest methane gas cloud in North America. On satellite images this cloud showed up as red, pink, yellow, and orange. I manipulated the sky in my photographs to represent the colors of the methane gas cloud. The images I composed provide the viewer with an abstracted composition. The pieces are digital chromogenic prints face-mounted to shaped Plexiglas. The shaped aspect of my compositions creates a three-dimensional effect out of a two-dimensional object, removing photography from the confines of a rectangle or a square

The second part of the series is based on an intense sunset I witnessed while living in New York City in 2019. The sky was full of intense reds and oranges and the sun was a giant red fireball. The sunset was so unusually intense that many people had stopped to take pictures. I later learned that a series of fires in Canada had caused large swaths of smoke to filter down to the east coast. I grew up in New Mexico where our summer fire season always looms large. In 2020 the American West experienced one of the worst fire seasons on record with a total of 8 million acres burned and 13,000 buildings destroyed at a cost of $2.7 billion. Climate change is believed to have contributed to the severity of the wildfires. Every day during the fire season we were given an Air Quality Index color. In these photographs I looked to these colors as a reference point. I combined colors both realistic and unnatural and the relationship involved when you combine the two. These unnatural colors, though sometimes beautiful to look at, are not supposed to be there. We as a human race are contributing to altering our landscapes.

Michael Namingha

Education: 

B.B.A.  Strategic Design and Management, Parsons School of Design, New York, NY.

Attended Master Classes at the Santa Fe Art Institute (1996-97) with:

• Judy Pfaff
• Donald Lipski
• John Baldessari
• Fritz Scholder
• Manuel Neri
• Stephen Auger

Public Collections:

Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA

Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO

Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, Hanover, NH

Museum of Contemporary Native Art, Santa Fe, NM

Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, AZ

Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ

New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM

Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA

Exhibitions:

2021           Michael Namingha: Altered Landscapes, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM.

2020          Word Play, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM.

2019          The Art of the Naminghas: Dan, Arlo, and Michael, Reading Public Museum, Reading, PA.

                  Nine for Ninety: Artists for a New Era, Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, AZ.

2018          Recent Gifts From the Southwest: CN Gorman Museum | University of California, Davis, CA.

                  The Black Place: Georgia O'Keeffe and Michael Namingha, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM.

                  Vantage Points: History and Politics in the American Landscape, Newark Museum, Newark, NJ.

2017          Shifting Light: Photographic Perspectives, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM

                  Conception, Abstraction, Reduction: The Art of Dan, Arlo, and Michael Namingha, Santa Fe Botanical Garden, Santa Fe, NM

2016          Grand Muse, Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, Arizona

                  Alcoves 16/17.4 New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico

                 "The Train Must Be Fed" Santa Fe Community Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

                  lululemon men atheletica, SoHo, New York.

                  You Are On Indian Land, Group Exhibition, Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, Arizona.

2015          Octopus Dreams, Group Exhibition, Tobinodai Historic Site Park Museum, Funabashi City, Japan

                  "NewsFeed" Santa Fe Collective, Santa Fe, New Mexico

                  25th Anniversary Exhibit, Niman Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico

                  Double Vision, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico

2014          Pop-Up Gallery Santa Fe Collective, Brooklyn, New York

                  August Exhibit, Niman Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico

                  Lucent Exhibit, Cloud 5 Studio, Santa Fe, New Mexico

                  Pop Up Gallery Santa Fe Collective, Albert Kinney Festival, Venice Beach, California

                  Pop-Up Gallery, Santa Fe Collective, Santa Fe, New Mexico

2013          Arternative Light 3, Musee Oceanographique de Monaco, Monaco

                  Michael Lord Gallery, Palm Springs, California

                  Niman Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico

                  Ekaterinburg Museum, Ekaterinburg, Russia

                  Arternative Light 2, Chapiteau de Fontvieille, Monaco

                  Namingha Family: Landscape, Form, and Light, Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona

                  Berlin Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona

 2011         Arternative Light, Chapiteau de Fontvieille, Monaco

2010         Jay Etkin Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico

                 Niman Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico

2009         Niman Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico

                 Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Appointments and Participation:

• 2018-2019 | Participating Artist | NEW INC at New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY, NY.
• 2013-2017 | Board of Directors, Foundation Board of the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico
• 2008-2013 | Served as Arts Commissioner for the City of Santa Fe, New Mexico
• 2012-2015 | Chairman, Art in Public Places Committee, City of Santa Fe, New Mexico
• 2012-2016 | Board of Directors, Santa Fe Community Foundation, Santa Fe, New Mexico
• 2008 UNESCO delegate. New Designers Workshop 2008: Roots Finder - DESIGN DNA Nagoya, Japan