Michael Namingha’s (Tewa/Hopi) Altered Landscape series are abstract, photography-based works that juxtapose geometric shapes in bright neon colors against black-and-white aerial landscapes from the Four Corners region. The compositions are mounted to shaped plexiglass, creating the illusion of three-dimensional works.

Altered Landscapes address the environmental impact of the gas and oil industry: drilling stations, refineries, gas plants, fracking platforms, pipelines, and chemical storage are all situated in a drilling site around Chaco Canyon, a national historic park sacred to the ancestral Puebloans. More than 40,000 wells are in operation on federally leased land across the 7,500 square miles large San Juan Basin. While 34,0000 acres of the Black Place and nearby Chaco are protected from drilling and fracking, an overground pipeline runs through the Black Place. An estimated 140,000 New Mexicans live within half a mile of a drilling site. While the risks of methane waste and related pollution have not been extensively studied, they include health conditions such as respiratory ailments. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, these issues are hitting Indigenous communities particularly hard. While other artists deal with these themes head-on, Namingha’s work is in contrast non-confrontational, even quiet, inviting viewers to contemplate the devastating effects of the oil and gas industries on ancestral lands.

Associated Artist

• Michael Namingha

Associated News

• September 1, 2021
  Michael Namingha presents altered perspectives of western landscapes from climate change in solo show
  ArtDaily
  September 1, 2021
  
  


• August 31, 2021
  Michael Namingha
  Altered Landscapes
  GalleriesNow
  August 31, 2021


• August 20, 2021
  Press Release - Michael Namingha Altered Landscapes


• August 1, 2021
  Native American and American Art
  Peabody Essex Museum
  
  


• August 1, 2021
  Michael Namingha: Altered Landscapes
  El Paso Museum of Art
  


• February 5, 2021
  Michael Namingha: Altered Landscapes
  IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts
  February 5, 2021
  
  


• October 24, 2020
  For America: Paintings from the National Academy of Design
  New Mexico Museum of Art
  October 24, 2020
  


• March 23, 2018
  Vantage Points: History and Politics in the American Landscape
  The Newark Museum of Art
  March 23,2018