New Work by Bead Artist Ken Williams, Jr. and Potter Erik Fender
November 28, 2008 through January 4, 2009 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM
 Lloyd Kiva New Gallery at the IAIA Museum, 108 Cathedral Place, Santa Fe, NM 87501 (Click here for a map)
Seneca/Arapaho bead artist Ken Williams, Jr. and San Ildefonso Pueblo potter Erik Fender grew up surrounded by traditional artisans who passed down the creative knowledge of those generations who had gone before. Williams and Fender have now made these art forms something entirely their own, merging traditional techniques with innovative ideas to push the creative boundaries of their chosen mediums. The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) Museum Store will feature new work from both artists in a special exhibit opening November 28, 2008 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. The show continues until January 4, 2009. As with all IAIA Museum Store exhibits, the work will be available for purchase, and each purchase benefits the Museum.
Ken Williams, Jr. is a mostly self taught artist who began experimenting with beadwork at age six while living on the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation (where his father is from) in western New York. As a teenager, he moved and was able to spend more time with his mother’s family, highly regarded as master bead workers, at the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. It was there that he decided to pursue beadwork as a serious endeavor, refining his work to continue his family’s reputation. A graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), Williams notes that Teri Greeves (Kiowa), his beadwork instructor at IAIA, greatly influenced his current work that he says “manifests a modern style that is very much rooted in tradition.”
Like Williams, potter Erik Fender, Than Tsidih (Sun Bird) began creating at a very young age. He was only 10 when he began to learn pottery techniques from his family, primarily his well-known mother Martha Appleleaf and grandmother Carmelita Dunlap, but went on to study and graduate from IAIA. His interest in color led to experimentation with different clays and techniques to attain new types of embellishment on pottery. Recently, however, Fender has been interested in reviving traditional San Ildefonso polychrome pottery techniques almost lost to the popularity of the matte black and red ware now commonly associated with the pueblo.
For more information about this show, please call the IAIA Museum Store at 505.983.1666.
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