Exhibit coming to Phoenix celebrates Native peoples storytelling

Special to Independent Newsmedia

Phoenix Art Museum will present “Cara Romero: Panûpünüwügai (Living Light),” the first major museum exhibition dedicated solely to the artist’s work.

Romero blends fine art and editorial styles to challenge dominant narratives of Indigenous decline and erasure while disrupting preconceived notions about what it means to be a Native American, a museum press release notes. Organized by the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, “Panûpünüwügai (Living Light)” features more than 60 large-scale photographs spanning a decade of the artist’s career.

Phoenix Art Museum commissioned the never-before-exhibited work created by Romero as a project based in regional storytelling with Native peoples.

“Cara Romero: Panûpünüwügai (Living Light)” will be on view at the museum from Feb. 28 through June 28.

“Phoenix Art Museum is profoundly honored to debut ‘Cara Romero: Panûpünüwügai (Living Light)’ during this historic moment for the institution, as we expand our commitment to presenting the most innovative voices shaping contemporary art today,” Jeremy Mikolajczak, the museum’s Sybil Harrington Director and CEO, shared in a press release. “Romero stands at the forefront of contemporary photography, masterfully weaving materials, myths, and Indigenous practices with urgent contemporary realities.”

Romero is a renowned photographer known for fine-art photography that examines Indigenous life in contemporary contexts. An enrolled citizen of the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, Romero was raised between the contrasting settings of the rural Chemehuevi reservation in Mojave Desert, California, and the urban sprawl of Houston.

Her visual storytelling represents Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultural memory, countering dominant narratives of Native American experiences and showcasing the diversity within Indigenous nations and communities.

“Having a contemporary photography exhibit at Phoenix Art Museum marks a radical turn in my journey as a Native American female photographer,” Romeo stated. “I am excited for the work to be integrated into an American Art museum as an intercultural conversation – I’m especially excited that PhxArt is the closest major American Art institution to my homelands on the Chemehuevi Valley Indian Reservation.”

Representing her first solo exhibition touring the U.S., Phoenix will be the second of four venues.