Marie Watt

Marie Watt is a member of the Turtle Clan of the Seneca Nation of Indians whose work draws on images and ideas from Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) protofeminism and Indigenous teachings. The use of textiles, beadwork, and neon is central to her work. She often uses language in her work that fuses her pieces across mediums, such as "Turtle Island," "Ancestor," "Skywalker," and "Companion Species." This language often references indigenous geographies and philosophies. Her work initiates intergenerational and interdisciplinary conversations that aim to foster understanding of our connections to place, each other, and the universe.
  
Watt was one of fifteen artists commissioned to create a major site-specific installation for the Obama Presidential Center. She received the 2025 Heinz Award for the Arts and was elected to the National Academy of Design.

Watt received her MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University, as well as degrees from Willamette University and the Institute of American Indian Arts. In 2016, Willamette University awarded her an honorary doctorate. She has held residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and the Vermont Studio Center. Her work has been supported by fellowships from Anonymous Was a Woman, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the Harpo Foundation, the Ford Family Foundation, and the Native Arts and Culture Foundation, among others.

Recent solo institutional exhibitions include Tuning to the Sounds of the Skies at The Gund at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, and Storywork: The Prints of Marie Watt, from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland State University in Oregon after stops at the University of San Diego; Art Museum of West Virginia University, Morgantown; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Champaign; and the Print Center of New York.

Watt's work is included in the collections of the Baltimore Museum; Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, Arkansas; Denver Art Museum; Metropolitan Museum, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Seattle Art Museum; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; and the Whitney Museum, New York, among others.