$3,200 framed
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Mikayla Patton (she/her) is a visual artist born and raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation of so-called South Dakota. Patton is a dual citizen of the United States and an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Nation. In 2019, Patton obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a focus in Printmaking from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Patton’s 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. She has had residencies with the Roswell Artist-in-Residence (2020) Foundation and the Judy Pfaff Foundation (2022).
Patton works across alternative printmaking and paper making practices, beadwork and other mixed media. Her works begin with handmade paper created from historical documents and other found materials which are worked to a pulp and then marked by burning, laser cutting or other treatments. The artist often embeds materials and meaning into the paper, such as bits of calico fabric that reference matrilineal knowledge and familial love in the Unci's Love Series. Other works include sage leaves which are burnt for purification and protection. The deckle edges of the paper and the rich textured surface reference Lakota art on animal hides. Many works are titled in the Lakota language: Igluonihan, which translates as dignity and Unci means grandmother. The parfleche series in particular draw on traveling trunks which play an important role in many Plains tribes and were largely painted by women.
“The embellishment of the parfleche was strongly painted by women with earth pigments and abstract symbolism. The designs could tell stories, dreams, experiences and were made for specific people. Though representative, the utilitarian trunk may also have been a spiritual form of map and record keeping of land through powerful line formations. Originally made from rawhide (animal skin beaten flat and dried until hard), parfleche is a significant thread of Lakota lineage, intersecting my ancestors' ingenuity with contemporary Lakota expression.”– Mikayla Patton
