Skye Tafoya, Jakeli Swimmer, Michelle Long, Keli Gonzales: September 30, 2025
Art + Architecture Building, McCarty Auditorium, September 30, 5:30pm
Rhiannon Skye Tafoya (b. 1989) is an interdisciplinary artist from the Eastern Band of Cherokee and the Santa Clara Pueblo Tribes. She earned a BFA in printmaking from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM, and an MFA in print media from Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, OR. She employs printmaking, digital design, and basketry techniques in creating her artist’s books, prints, and paper weavings. Both of her Tribal heritages, cultures, and lineages are manifested in her two- and three-dimensional artworks that range in size from a few inches to a few feet. She is inspired by her family history of basketry and observing her father and maternal grandmother weave baskets from red willow, honeysuckle vine, and white oak. While her inspiration comes, in part, from Cherokee traditions, her artworks are decidedly contemporary, featuring sharp lines and bold colors. Skye creates to preserve, archive, and share personal and familial stories, cultural knowledge, and the Cherokee language.
Keli Gonzales is a Cherokee artist from Welling, Oklahoma. Drawing on her experiences as a Cherokee woman, Gonzales creates imagery that merges pop culture with traditional Cherokee culture portraying the Cherokee people in a way that is true to life. She is the producer of the documentary ᎤᏕᏲᏅ (WHAT THEY’VE BEEN TAUGHT), which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and is part of the Los Angeles Times “Short Docs” series.
Michelle Long belongs to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and Mvskoke People. She has finessed techniques in clay and polymer clay, depicting animals and human features merged together to create magical and otherworldly masks. Michelle expresses her emotions and experiences through her sculpted creations that make their way into homes and cars of people across the country. She has lived her whole life in the Painttown community on the Qualla Boundary in North Carolina and is continuously influenced by her family and community surrounding her.
Jakeli Swimmer (b. 1990), is an Eastern Band of Cherokee, EBCI, graphic designer and cartoonist residing on his ancestral homelands in Quallatown, North Carolina. He is the creator of the satirical observational and humorous cartoon series called “Around the Boundary” which has had a steady following on social media among both Native and non-Native people.
Exhibitions: RHIANNON “SKYE” TAFOYA, Ewing Gallery of Art + Architecture, August 20 – October 14, 2025. DIRTY ONES – THE PEOPLE OF GADUHVI-TSU’NI’GA’DA’H, curated by Rhiannon Skye Tafoya, featuing the works of Jakeli Swimmer, Keli Gonzales and Michelle Long, UT Downtown Gallery, August 30 – October 18, 2025.