








Artist Guestrooms


It’s no coincidence that Nativo Lodge was named the “#1 Artsiest Hotel in America in 2018” by the World Property Journal. These artists rooms have been exclusively commissioned to Native American artisans, many of which have received national recognition and awards and reflect the contributions of students and/or alumni of the Institute of American Indian Arts, the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts Indian Market, and more. While most art is experienced in galleries or museums, Nativo Lodge offers guests a chance to stay in full-scale art installations created by contemporary Native American artists. Inspired by deeply-rooted traditions, the depictions range from legendary narratives to pop-culture and many relevant themes in between—offering guests an intimate glimpse into a modern expression of cultural authenticity.
The Artist chose room 416 because she is the 4th child of five from Pueblo descent, and because of the 4 directions of prayer and earth. Inside the room is a whole world from Miss Allison’s imagination. On the east side is a forest inspired by her travels to Slovenia with a mix of sparkling markers and forest creatures.
This room speaks to the Angk’wa ceremonies during the observation of Osomuya in Hopi villages during late February and early March.
With the sun rising in the east, it blankets Chief Mountain, a sacred site located on the Piikani (Blackfeet Nation) reservation in Montana. Down by the river on the west wall is a portrait of a Salishan (Spokane) man fishing in the traditional way.
To the south stands a grizzly bear that has caught a salmon.
This room is an installation that brings the Earth Surface People in touch with paintings of Diyin Diné (the Holy People).
The room exemplifies traditional subjects with Kawaii art (Japanese meaning for cute) to suggest that traditional knowledge continues into the present.
This installation speaks to the physical aspects of life. Being able to see your reflection makes you a part of the art and restores a position or societal function that has been taken. How does the biodiversity within soil strengthen or weaken a space?
There are three different wooden panels, “Eternity Weavings”, fixed onto the walls in room 406. They are a continuation of sorts, paintings that shift and change as it needs to. Whether it is as simple as a signature, a scribble, a poem, or a favorite lyric. I invite you to convey your personal expression to them.
This room depicts the story of Coyote and the creation of the Milky Way. The Navajo believe the Milky Way is a pathway for spirits to travel between heaven and earth. Each star is a little footprint.
This room is a project that extends beyond the boundaries of this room as the artist explores human relationships to objects.
ARRIVAL/DEPARTURE • ROOM 523
Arrival/Departure shares the cycle of seasons and blessings brought by hummingbirds.
Humor has always played a significant role in Native American culture. I painted this room as a continuous strip to remind us that humor is all around us.
The imagery on the walls incorporate three elements: the woman, the Chiefs blanket design and bluebirds. In Navajo creation stories both of the women gave birth or conceived at day, thus creating life and a lineage to the world as we know it.
It is my hope you find a sense of renewal and peace in this room.
Dragonflies taking messages to all the Deities who reside in the clouds. Taking the weight off your shoulders and giving it back to the earth. I was very drawn to the turquoise blue, as it’s considered a color of protection.
RELEASE RECEIVE • ROOM 430
Within this immersive environment the participants will experience their own ecology with it by interacting with buffalo, iron (blood of our mother), tree, light, water, colors, sound, touch, and iconography. This experience is meant to give them inspiration. Participants may leave something for others and or receive something from others on the wooden altars.
This room incorporates the Great Plains narrative, traditional Apsaalooke’ imagery, and a historical recollection into an inviting room full of nostalgic images and bold, brilliant colors.
This room is a reflection of NDN art being sent to the future to earmark time. #1NDN is best viewed through 3D glasses.
I chose to use ledger style art to reflect the Plains tribes we come from. It signifies a shift in time, when our ancestors first began using other materials to illustrate their stories. I wanted to illustrate the stories of our days, of our battles.
A FOURTH WORLD LIFE • ROOM 402
This space embodies Diné traditions of storytelling particularly in the creation story and epistemological beliefs, incorporating three fundamental elements of the land/earth, rainbows, and several motifs of Navajo storytelling.
PHYTOREMEDIATION IN THE GLITTERING WORLD • ROOM 404
This room is a commentary on the relationship between the Indigenous people of New Mexico, the land, the water, the New Mexico government and the legacy of uranium processing in New Mexico.
This room means “we are all related” showing that the beings of the earth and the beings of the universe are related and mirrored images of each other.
This room represents the guardians of the second world through Navajo (Diné) Stories. The hummingbird illustrated the strong structure of the second world and the laws that governed it. Hummingbird’s characteristics include strength, agility, flexibility, speed, accuracy, and beauty.
Explore Jaque’s room as a unified vision. The repeating pattern done in pink surrounds the entire room, and is based on preColumbian Mesoamerican pottery designs from the San Juan basin.
Existence is the exploration of using geometric abstraction to explore the idea of sharing thoughts through non-objective forms. Using the concepts of Suprematism allows me to freely compose ideas that the origins of humanity are the same. In our ever-changing world, our communities have been polarized by political and religious ideologies that threaten peace and progress.
This room faces Okuu Pín-Turtle Mountain-Sandia Mountains, one of the four Sacred Mountains of the Tewa World.
The room is oriented to the six Tewa Cardinal Directions and has various representations of Tewa traditions.
The rain falling is just noticeable among abstract designs inspired by the colors and designs of Southwestern Pueblo Pottery.
A rainbow forms the perch for a quail braced by flowers as scalloped clouds trim the ceiling above.
INDIGENOUS TIME • ROOM 526
This room incorporates Sacred Calendar systems and Sacred Geometry. Spiderwoman is at the threshold outreaching to the Universe and casts a web of Time.
RISE • ROOM 525
This room is showing recognition to women rising and our future generation. Joann Kauffman and Kim Smith are Native rights activists and are the inspiration for this room.
“Gimiwan//Look to the Sky” is a non-linear narrative woven together from pieces of memories, family, landscape, home, and multigenerational collaboration. Gimiwan is the Ojibwe word for rain/it rains. Inside the space, the story encapsulates visual elements connected by rain and references to water or locations in close proximity to water.
This room was created to pay respect to the sacred connection of women to earth and water, and to honor this sacred feminine life force connection.
This room was created in honor of the sacred feminine. Zitkála-Šá was an artist and political activist Sioux woman who lived 1876-1938. She made it her life to fight for civil rights, health care, and education for Native Americans.
Subverting the idea of who art is made for, this room was created specifically for Nativo’s Rez Dog guests.
The elaborate Victorian design has been overtaken and is bursting with the rez dogs survivance and indigeneity, who through natural selection, have created a breed of their own.
We need to be loving to ourselves, our mates, our children, our elders, and our friends. We need to make good choices and failures, they’re hard on the heart. Be brave and be strong in your effort to make good choices.
This room celebrates the Hopi way of life and its historical roots grounded in morals based on respect, collaboration, reciprocity, and taking initiative.
Interpreting a dream from long ago in a galaxy very close to here:
From the Holy MTN, a Santo comes down from the peaks speaking forth the vision from the well-spring of loving and living. He confronts and battles the false enriched, exchanging knowledge amongst the weary of heart on his travels to the stars and above-world.
Estella’s art is inspired by nature and the beauty of life’s unfolding.
The art is stylized, colorful, and contemporary, rooted in but not confined by her cultural traditions.
The color scheme of Michelle’s room aims to interpret the sunsets of the Southwest and the design pattern help reflect elements of mother nature. The room radiates positive energy and is meant for finding beauty.
The artwork in this room is a conversation with the viewer about love, promises, place, ceremony, meditation, and prayers.
Room 409 is based on a painting that was completed in 2019 of the same name. This painting was inspired by a walk I took in the fall in Pojoaque, NM with my son. We were hiking at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. I was astounded by the scenery, I took pictures with my phone, but the pictures did not do it justice.
In New Mexico the influence of Native American people is felt and seen on almost all aspects of the community. I painted Indian faces gracing walls to commemorate contributions by the original citizen occupants of New Mexico.
SUSTENANCE • ROOM 501
The story of this mural tells of the link between the Pueblo person and the mule deer, between the human and source of our sustenance.
The main focal point is a re-creation of an Awatovi-Pueblo black on yellow polychrome. The simplicity encompasses both the masculine and feminine qualities found within Pueblo Pottery; the design is prayer moisture and harmony. The second design is another re-creation of an 1800 black on white Zuni Stew bowl.
The Keeva is a dwelling that was created to pay homage to the creative source, as well as comics and cartoons. Ehren’s art honors traditions and spirits of this dimension and beyond.
As a veteran of the Iraq war, I use art to tell stories and heal.
This room depicts figures, symbols, and phases from Navajo culture including three meaningful words: Hózhó, Yeego, and Diné. These words helped me become who I am today as a husband, father, and Navajo artist.
“MESTIZO
The inspiration behind the imagery is a tribute to the land and the people of the Southwest. A combination of latex paint, acrylic paint and collage were used to create the imagery.
The south wall represents the land and the people. The north wall represents traditional dwellings of the Pueblo peoples.
The inspiration for this room was to incorporate literal and symbolic meaning of some Pueblo traditional garment designs.
Billowing cloud formations over the deep ocean are accented by dragonfly and butterfly messengers.
The Zuni People have protected and thrived on the land that we have lived on since our migration led us to settle in the Middle Place (Zuni Pueblo). This migration is symbolized by the turquoise line that surrounds the room and ends at the spiral.
The diamond landscape with the golden stars portrays our sacred landmark in Zuni, Dowa Yalanne Mountain.
The designs and symbols in this room commemorate the Araro Jóskua, the place where the P’urhepecha fire surges. It’s a space that evokes and honors the inner light and ancestral memory.
This room is structured around several fundamental elements of Rio Grande Pueblo dance culture.
The theme of this room is Indigenous futurism. A lot of inspiration and imagery is taken from my comic book of the same name. One half of the room is an imagining of what Earth, namely, the Diné reservation will be like in 200 years. The other half of the room focuses on space, the eponymous Sixth World.
DIRECTED • ROOM 511
Rose’s room is a prayer. Each portrait displayed on the walls creates a space of blessing, guidance, and protection.
This room illustrates the power wind carries as well as its significance in Navajo creation stories.
EVENING’S SNOW COME • ROOM 426
Taos Pueblo Views from a Pueblo room. The room starts from early Taos Pueblo mountains, then goes from late night to early morning, to twilight and ends with the Pueblo Pottery fish.
I want visitors to feel how it is in our Pueblo house.
This room communicates the connection between past and present, tradition and modernity, while paying homage to the natural environment.
The cyclic motion of our Universe decorates the interior of this room just as it does with the surrounding environments of this ever-changing land.
Beauty is a way of protection for me. As children we are told to practice the true nature of beauty before us, behind us, above us, and below us. It is in the Navajo Culture that we share the verse, “Walk in Beauty.”
This room depicts popular culture icons intertwined with traditional Puebloan interpretations of design which influences and teaches the viewer about what Pueblo people believe in.
This room is about visiting the Pueblo with family and friends. Diné, the people, traveling together, on a nice cool day. Visiting and socializing, with Pueblo families.
This room speaks of a place where dreams and passions are carried by the wind and ascend to the clouds.
I used the polychrome style for this particular project. I usually use the black on white style which I use on my pottery but I wanted to add color to this design. The orange I used on the top border represents the sun and also the sunrise. When orange is used on the bottom of the pottery, that represents the sunset.
Creating art is a journey. I rely on my traditional philosophy and beliefs of the Jicarilla Apache and Hemis to guide me on my artistic journey; and on this path we call life. My son, Adam Spenser Vigil, was a Collaborative Painter on this room.
NOW • ROOM 414
Now, reflects living in the present and understanding the sacredness of now with Ndee women who are in the moment in vibrant hues of the Four Sacred Directions. Each woman painted represents a mood of today’s narratives within Indigenous female thought processes and feelings that can be found and expressed on social media.
My grandmother and aunt are known weavers, who are still practicing the intricate traditional skill. The Tree of Life represents all life on earth and the harmony that exists between them.
This room is a visual melody of beauty through color and motion. Yazzie’s painting literally starts with a splash of paint sparked by an idea, the rest is completed with intuition and experimentation.
In 2019, Nativo partnered with Albuquerque’s Working Classroom’s students from the Native American Community Academy and instructors to create collaborative middle and high school artist rooms. Working Classroom cultivates the artistic, civic, and academic minds of youth through in-depth arts projects with contemporary artists to amplify historically ignored voices, resist systemic injustices, and imagine a more equitable society. They value the strong, fresh, and unique voices that youth bring to art and social justice movements. Training young artists from underrepresented communities contributes to a more complete and nuanced understanding of our world. Art has the power to heal and disrupt isolation and systems of oppression.
Working with images they felt reflected their interests, this room transformed into a collage of misfit puzzle pieces. The spontaneity brought raw interpretations of land, identity, escapism, thought, and emotion. This room represents the limitlessness of creativity to the students.
Our room is a collective of youth silhouettes, medicinal floral plants, symmetry, and warmth from a sacred mountain. The goal was to send a positive message of harmony and reciprocity with the earth, and the many healing gifts She brings.