Sarah Ortegon HighWalking is a visual artist, dancer and actor. She is an enrolled member of the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes.[1][2] Her work has been presented at the 60th Venice Biennale and at the Denver Art Museum.[3] She is the first woman artist to represent the state of Wyoming at the Venice Biennale.[4]
Early life and education
Ortegon Highwalking was born in Denver, one of 12 children. She spent summers as a child on the Wind River Reservation.[5]
She received a BA degree from Metropolitan State University of Denver.[6] After graduating from university, she attended the National Outdoor Leadership School which enabled her to travel to Alaska. There she hiked, for several months off-trail in the Chugack Mountains and also sea kayaked. She later became an expedition leader for the school.[3]
Career
She primarily creates beadwork on animal skin, and also produces acrylic paintings. Her work has been exhibited at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Venice Biennale and the Denver Art Museum, among other venues.[5][4] According to the Denver Art Museum, her work "embraces the resilience of Indigenous people and acknowledges the ways in which they exist in the modern world."[1]
Ortegon HighWalking performs in a jingle dress, an experience she says "feels like there’s an inner spirit that is dancing with the regalia". Her contribution to the exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts includes paintings of jingle dresses and a beaded cradleboard. The jingle dress traditions originated with the Anishinaabe people; she learned this type of dancing from other dancers at powows since she was a child. She has also performed the jingle dance at Lincoln Center in New York City, and most recently at the Venice Bienalle.[3]
As an actor she had roles in the television series 1883 and Jamestown, and has performed in the play Black Elk Speaks.[3]
Honors
In 2013, Ortegon HighWalking was named Miss Native American USA. Following this, she began a career in acting. This provided the opportunity for her to engage in a cultural exchange with Guatamal and Moldova, where she performed.[1][3]
In 2024, the National Museum of Women in the Arts announced her as a "Wyoming Woman Artist to Watch" and she was selected as a "Global Woman to Watch."[3]
Collections
Ortegon HighWalking's beadwork on animal skin piece, Home Is Where the Heart Is, is held in the permanent colletion of the Denver Art Museum.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d "Home Is Where the Heart Is Home is Where the Heart Is Sarah Ortegon Bead, 2013". Denver Art Museum. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
- ^ "Staff". Native American Rights Fund. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f Sampson, Elizabeth. "Women You Should Watch: Native American Artist and Dancer Selected for Global Women to Watch Exhibition for the National Museum of Women in the Arts". The Wyoming Truth. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
- ^ a b "The first woman artist from Wyoming will be in the new and upcoming women artist exhibit in D.C." Wyoming Public Radio. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
- ^ a b Kudelska, Kamila. "A Wyoming artist picked for a national exhibit hopes her art brings back humanity and family relations". Wyoming Public Radio: All Things Considered. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
- ^ "About". Sarah Ortegon. Retrieved 2 May 2024.