SANTA FE, NM.- Native people have often been incorrectly portrayed or entirely misrepresented by non-Natives throughout the ages. In The Sovereign Image, a new exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts’ Lloyd Kiva New Gallery and Museum Store, contemporary Native photographers will push the Native likeness forward, articulating the future of Native people using the power of their own image.. The exhibit opens February 27 and will remain on display until April 11, 2010. The Museum Store is located at 108 Cathedral Place, in downtown Santa Fe, NM. All work will be available for purchase and all sales benefit the artists and the museum.

At press time, participating artists include a mix of Institute of American Indian Arts’ students and alumni and both emerging and well-established artists: Rory Erler Wakemup (Anishinaabe), Shan Goshorn (Eastern Band Cherokee), Dorothy Grandbois (Chippewa), John Hagen (Aleut), Jean LaRance (Little Shell Tribe of Montana), Jinniibaah Manuelito (Diné/Navajo), H. Clay Napie, Jr. (Diné), Cougar Vigil (Apache), Tom Jones (Ho Chunk) and Will Wilson (Diné/Navajo)

Many have participated in top-notch art exhibits around the world. Tom Jones, for instance, was one of two featured artists in Rendezvoused, an exhibit at the La Biennale di Venezia 53rd international arts exhibition in collaboration with the Department of European and Postcolonial Studies, University of Ca' Foscari, Venice. Shan Goshorn, has exhibited in York, England's Impression Gallery, New York City’s American Indian Community House Gallery, the Franco-American Institute in Rennes, France, Beijing Jialuan Art Center, China and the International Arts Alive Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa.