Roswell Artist-in-Residence: Mikayla Patton

Visitation

September 4 – October 10, 2021

Artist Talk September 17 at 5:30pm 

Marshall and Winston Gallery

Visitation is the interaction between Patton's current work and a beaded Lakota dress, which she borrowed from its confinement within the Museum's Aston Collection display. She sees this dress as a relative, a story, stitched, and braided with intention. Every bead and every fringe is full of energy, similar to the vessels within her current installation. By holding this sacred space, for both her work and the dress, she is engaging in what she refers to as "reciprocity and continuity which are acts of making medicine." Accompanying the dress, will be handcrafted vessels. Dressed in handmade paper, acrylic, porcupine quills, deer lace, and pigments, her vessels are adorned with Lakota motifs of power, and are extensions of something familiar. For Patton, "they contain an unseen force that is the essence of feminine vitality, like roots they are stable, yet like bodies they move." 

Mikayla Patton (she/her) is an off-rez, Oglala Lakota, and mixed media artist. She was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation in so-called South Dakota where her Lakota relatives' homelands surround the Paha Sapa (Black Hills). In 2019, Patton obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in printmaking from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her work has been exhibited at the Chiaroscuro Contemporary Gallery (Santa Fe); Texas Tech School of Art (Lubbock); All My Relations Gallery (Minneapolis); and the Rainmaker Gallery (Bristol). As of 2020, Patton has received the Goodman Aspiring Artist fellowship through the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture; Artist in Business Leadership from First Peoples Fund; and the Ronald and Susan Dubin fellowship through the Indian Arts and Research Center. Currently based in Roswell N.M., she is working on a one-year residency through the Roswell Artist-in-residence Foundation.  

Website: mikaylapatton.com
Instagram: daylight_mpatton