Marie Watt
Marie Watt (b. 1967, Seattle, WA) lives and works in Portland, OR. Watt is an artist and citizen of the Seneca Nation with German-Scot ancestry, which informs her work and process deeply. Her layered and complex influences include Indigenous knowledge and Iroquois proto feminism, the matriarchal structures of certain Native American nations, the rise of social activism throughout the 20th century, and the anti-war and anti-hate content of the 1960s and 1970s music scene. Through collaborative actions, such as her Sewing Circles, she instigates multi-generational and cross-disciplinary conversations aiming to create a lens and conversation for understanding connectedness to place, one another, and the universe.
The use of textiles and beadwork are central to Watt’s work. She is known for her blanket towers that she builds with I-beams, a nod to Iroquois ironworkers who helped to build the skyscrapers of New York, cedar wood bases and secondhand blankets that are imbued with personal stories. In her beadwork she uses vintage Murano glass beads that are at least a hundred years old and have a unique luster. Her latest works are created with neon, a medium that Watt considers to be an extension of glass beads and thread. The language she often uses in her work, such as “Turtle Island”, “Ancestor”, “Skywalker” or “Companion Species”, amalgamate her work across mediums and often refer to Indigenous geographies and philosophies.
Selected collections include the Metropolitan Museum of Art; The National Gallery; Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian; Whitney Museum of American Art; Buffalo AKG Art Museum (formerly Albright-Knox Art Gallery); Carnegie Museum of Art; Detroit Institute of Art; Denver Art Museum; Walker Art Center; The Princeton University Art Museum; Yale University Art Gallery; Peabody Essex Museum; Crystal Bridges Museum; Renwick Gallery; Tacoma Art Museum; National Museum of Art, Norway; National Gallery of Canada; Seattle Art Museum; and the Portland Art Museum. Watt has received numerous awards from Anonymous Was a Woman, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the Harpo Foundation, the Ford Family Foundation and the Native Arts and Culture Foundation.
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Sky Dances Light (Forest) XVI, 2024
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Sky Dances Light (Forest) XVIII, 2024
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Skywalker/Skyscraper (Flowers In A Field), 2024
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Singing Everything: Crescendo (Staccato), 2023
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Companion Species (First and Last), 2023
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Shared Horizon (Eastern Door), 2023
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Skywalker/Skyscraper (Rattle), 2023
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Companion Species (Source), 2023
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Placeholder (Horizon), 2023
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Companion Species (Constellation), 2022
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Companion Species (after Self Portrait in the Studio), 2022
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Companion Species (This Soil), 2021
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Skywalker/Skyscraper (Portrait), 2021
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Companion Species (A Distant Song)
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We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live
September 3 - November 3, 2024 Lower East Side -
Stereo Sights and Sounds
June 11 - July 30, 2023 Lower East Side -
Marie Watt
Singing Everything March 12 - May 20, 2023 Lower East Side -
Contaminated Landscape
June 16 - August 12, 2022 Lower East Side -
The Pattern of Patience
June 17 - July 24, 2021 Lower East Side -
Marie Watt
Turtle Island October 15, 2020 - January 15, 2021 Lower East Side
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Marie Watt in Hyperallergic
November 26, 2024 -
Marie Watt at the Museum of Albuquerque
October 16, 2024 -
Marie Watt in Arts and Culture Texas
October 9, 2024 -
Marie Watt and Ozioma Onuzulike at the Library Street Collective
October 9, 2024 -
Marie Watt on Glasstire
October 3, 2024 -
Marie Watt Receives Ellis Beauregard Foundation Art Fellowship Award
September 25, 2024 -
Marie Watt in ArtNet News
Ben Davis, September 19, 2024 -
Marie Watt in The New York Times
April 27, 2024 -
Marie Watt in Hyperallergic
April 24, 2024 -
Marie Watt in Forbes
April 22, 2024 -
Marie Watt in The Daily Texan
April 3, 2024 -
Marie Watt in Frieze
April 2, 2024 -
Marie Watt in The Brooklyn Rail
March 7, 2024 -
Marie Watt at Print Center New York
January 25, 2024 -
Marie Watt Receives 2023 PEM Prize
November 4, 2023 -
Marie Watt in BOMB Magazine
September 26, 2023 -
Marie Watt in The New York Times
September 11, 2023 -
Marie Watt in Fad Magazine
September 8, 2023 -
Marie Watt in The Art Newspaper
September 7, 2023 -
Stereo Sights and Sounds in Hyperallergic
July 12, 2023 -
Marie Watt in Cultured Mag
May 11, 2023 -
Marie Watt in The Brooklyn Rail
April 4, 2023 -
Marie Watt in W Magazine
February 9, 2023 -
Marie Watt at the Buffalo History Museum
July 22, 2022 -
Marie Watt at Hunterdon Art Museum
March 2, 2022 -
Marie Watt in Hyperallergic
December 11, 2021 -
Marie Watt at Yale University Art Gallery
November 26, 2021 -
Marie Watt in Art in America
November 3, 2021 -
Marie Watt at Hunterdon Art Museum
September 25, 2021 -
Marc Straus Gallery on Artsy’s Best Booths
September 11, 2021 -
Marc Straus Gallery in The Art Newspaper
September 11, 2021 -
Marie Watt in The Los Angeles Times
August 7, 2021 -
Marie Watt in The Denver Post
July 20, 2021 -
Marie Watt in The New York Times
July 9, 2021 -
Marie Watt in The Art Newspaper
May 26, 2021 -
Marie Watt in The New York Times
May 23, 2021 -
Marie Watt in The Wall Street Journal
May 1, 2021 -
Marie Watt to Speak at BAMPFA
April 16, 2021 -
Marie Watt Work Acquired by Metropolitan Museum of Art
March 25, 2021 -
Marie Watt in SAR Panel
March 13, 2021 -
Marie Watt at Wallach Art Gallery
March 3, 2021 -
Marie Watt, Jeanne Silverthorne, Anne Samat, Rona Pondick, and Anna Leonhardt at Nassau County Museum of Art
January 7, 2021 -
Marie Watt at Loro Piana New York
December 16, 2020 -
Marie Watt in Conversation with Nancy Marie Mithlo
December 3, 2020 -
Marie Watt at PAFA
November 20, 2020 -
Marie Watt in The Art Newspaper
October 17, 2020 -
Marie Watt at Whitney Museum
September 20, 2020 -
Marie Watt at Denver Museum
September 18, 2020 -
Marie Watt at Tang Teaching Museum
September 18, 2020 -
Marie Watt at Heard Museum of Art
September 1, 2020