Melanie Yazzie
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Melanie Yazzie [1]] is a U.S. sculptor, painter and printmaker. Yazzie was born in Ganado, Arizona, and she is of Navajo/Dine descent. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder: she teaches two-dimensional art. The artist is a sought after lecturer.
Melanie Yazzie’s art is accessible to the public on many levels. Her work is witty and usually is colorful. It is significant because the serious undertones reference native post-colonial dilemmas. Her work often fore-fronts images of women from many indigenous cultures. Thus her work references matrilineal systems and points to the possibility of female leadership.
Yazzie leads collaborative international projects for example, with artists in New Zealand, Siberia, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Germany and Japan. A recent portfolio, "Hello Kitty and Pocahontas" examined world artists analysis of the commercialization of ethnic identity. In addition to teaching at the Institute of American Indian Arts, the College of Santa Fe, and the University of Arizona, Yazzie taught at the Pont-Aven School of Art in France.
Yazzie earned a BFA at Arizona State University (1990) and an MFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder (1993). A selection of major exhibitions from the 1990s to present include “Between Two Worlds” (2008) at Arizona State University, "Traveling" at the Heard West Museum (2006), "About Face: Self-Portraits by Native American, First Nations, and Inuit Artists" at the Wheelwright Museum (2005), "Making Connections" (2002) in Bulova, Russia, "Navajo in Gisborne" (1999) in Gisborne, New Zealand and "Watchful Eyes" (1994) at the Heard Museum.
The artist is included in seminal books by Zena Pearlstone (About Face), Lucy Lippard [[2]] (Lure of the Local) and Jackson Rushing (Native American Art in the Twentieth Century), and collected nationally and internationally in private and public collections.
