An Afternoon With Alumna Kay WalkingStick at the National Museum of the American Indian.

Meet the Artist Kay WalkingStick - Smithsonian American Art Museum

"Kay WalkingStick's Transformative Paintings - American Art Moments." Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Take a tour through celebrated Native artist Kay WalkingStick’s long and complex career through a trio of paintings in the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collection. Learn about the artist’s perspective, influences, and bold artistic voice with Melissa Ho, SAAM’s curator of 20th-century art, who calls WalkingStick “one of the great American painters of our time.” Ho takes a closer look at three works: Two Women II (1973), With Love to Marsden (1995), and Orilla Verde at the Rio Grande (2012). She shares insights into the different phases of WalkingStick’s artistic practice and discusses the artist’s social commentary, which ranges from statements on female autonomy to the Native presence on sacred lands.

This video is part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's ongoing series American Art Moments.

Exhibition and artist spotlight: Kay WalkingStick, Mountains/Canyons/Clouds, Hales New York

"Hear My Voice," Artist Profile: Kay WalkingStick.
Video courtesy of the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, with thanks to Johanna Minnick.

"A Conversation with Kay WalkingStick and Kathleen Ash-Milby" that was livestreamed May 9, 2020, for WalkingStick's solo show, "In the Rockies," at Froelick Gallery, Portland Oregon.

"Mothers of Invention: Kay WalkingStick," Joanne Mattera Art Blog, July 31, 2020 visit

"Growing, Faltering, Changing, Growing: Lessons from Kay WalkingStick, by Holland Cotter. June 7, 2018. A version of this article appeared in print on June 8, 2018, on Page C15 of the New York edition with the headline: "At an Artist’s Core, Native American Roots." visit

State of the Arts New Jersey: Kay WalkingStick at the Montclair Art Museum visit

Janis Goodman and Bill Dunlap join WETA Around Town host Robert Aubry Davis to discuss the exhibit "Kay WalkingStick: An American Artist" at the National Museum of the American Indian. April 8, 2016. visit

Paintings from American Indian artist Kay Walkingstick, WETA Arts, April 1, 2016. visit

"A Cherokee Artist Wrestling with Grief, Colonialism, and False Dichotomies," by Elena Goukassian, Hyperallergic, April 6, 2016. visit

"Kay WalkingStick, Painting her Heritage" by Philip Kennicott, Art and Architecture Critic, The Washington Post, November 6th, 2015. visit

"A Long Overdue Retrospective for Kay WalkingStick Dispels Native Art Stereotypes,"by Menachem Wecker, Smithsonian.com, December 4, 2015 visit

"At Museum of the American Indian, an Exploration of KayWalkingStick's Art," by Kriston Capps, Washington City Paper, Arts Desk, November 15, 2015. visit

"National Museum of the American Indian Presents 'Kay WalkingStick: An American Artist'," artdaily.org, November 8, 2015 visit

"Kay WalkingStick: Passion and Place," by Kathleen Ash-Milby and Bradley Pecore, American Indian Magazine, Volume 16, No. 3, Fall 2015. visit

"June Kelly Gallery Presents New Paintings by Distinguished Native American Artist Kay WalkingStick," ADAA Inside Stories visit

A film from the exhibition, Kay WalkingStick: An American Artist on view at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC until Sept. 16, 2016. Produced by the National Museum of the American Indian's Media Group. visit

A symposium "Seizing the Sky, Kay WalkingStick and the Redefinition of American Art," was presented on November 5th, 2015, in the NMAI on the Mall in Washington, DC. visit

Kay WalkingStick's landmark "Chief Joseph" series is an elegy for the Nez Perce chief and his followers, who resisted forced removal from their homeland to a distant reservation. WalkingStick incised archetypal arc forms into thickly applied surfaces of acrylic paint and wax, revealing the color-stained canvases below in a kind of ritual act of mourning for the loss of home, land, and lives. 27 of the 36 panels in the series are in the permanent collection of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. visit

Artnet News, "17 Tips for Aspiring Artists from the Year's Top Commencement Speeches," June 2, 2016. visit

The New York Times, "Message to Graduates: Times Are Tough but You Can Make It," June 10, 2016 visit

Kay WalkingStick receives Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters
and delivers address at 2011 Undergraduate Commencement, Arcadia University, Glenside, PA. [Segment on Kay Walkingstick begins at approx 36 min 45 sec.] visit

"Art Through Time: A Global View, Part 10: The Natural World," visit
[Segment on Kay WalkingStick begins at approx 15 min 57 sec.]
Related: "Wallowa Mountains Memory," visit
Series produced by PBS Thirteen in association with wnet.org.

Artdaily.org, Online Art Newspaper, visit
Review of show at June Kelly Gallery, 2011

Western Art Collector Magazine view pdf
April 2010.

Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, CO visit
"Personal Paradise: Contemporary Perspectives on Landscape Painting"
On view through December 6, 2009.

Arcadia University, Glenside, PA visit

Artists Unite Issue Blog visit
Review of show at June Kelly Gallery by Sky Pape

Joanne Mattera Art Blog visit
Review of show at June Kelly Gallery by Joanne Mattera

Rainmaker Gallery, Bristol, UK visit

Hales Gallery, New York, NY, London, UK visit

The Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH visit

Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Art visit
Kay WalkingStick was a 2003 Fellow

The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Inc. visit
3-year Lee Krasner Award for Lifetime Achievement

Kresge Art Museum, East Lansing, MI visit

Dirk Bach, Easton, PA visit