In POP! Popular Culture in American Indian Art, pop culture and innovation collide with traditional art forms and cultures in artwork that reflects contemporary issues and imagery in an often comedic, tongue-in-cheek way. Contemporary American Indian artists craft imagery from popular culture using fashion, New Mexico clay slips, spray paint and glass beads. Artists include Marcus Amerman, Choctaw, who wields tiny glass beads to paint intricately shaded and detailed portraits of celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Jim Morrison and comic icons like Wonder Woman. Amerman also honored President Barack Obama a lá Shepard Fairey in red, white and blue beads on a belt buckle. After September 11, 2001, he created a series of bracelets that revealed the New York skyline with its missing twin towers.
Diego Romero, Cochiti Pueblo, has adapted a comic book look using a painting style that incorporates ancestral Mimbres pottery and contemporary ceramic bowls that he hand-coils. His primary subjects are the mythical Chongo Brothers, who express socio-political issues through their various antics in “Indian Country.”
Another ceramic artist, Jason Garcia, Santa Clara Pueblo, 
paints popular themes drawn from mainstream culture. Current issues pertaining to Indian gaming are addressed in a tile showing an Elvis impersonator at a tribal casino. In his Corn Maiden series, Garcia expresses the dichotomy of old versus new by painting young Pueblo women in traditional dress holding cell phones or digital cameras. Garcia’s work is also for sale in the Berlin Gallery at the Heard Museum Shop.
Aleut artist Paula Rasmus Dede creates unusual beaded Lucite heels that may have aluminum wires springing from the tops as in “Not Your Mama’s Mary Janes”or “Clearly Red Hot Mama,” red beaded platforms with red glass chilies and Tabasco bottles dangling from the tops and backs.
Ryan Singer, Navajo, came up with his idea for “Sheep is Good Food,” a take on Warhol’s famous “Campbell’s Soup,” during an accidental experiment. “I took out an art history book from my ASU curriculum, then flipped through the pages as fast as I could to see what image I would remember.” He did this a few times with the same results; he remembered an image from Andy Warhol’s famous “Campbell’s Soup” series. He studied the silk screen for about half-a-day. Then it hit him. “’This is too easy,’ I thought. I realized ‘Tomato Soup’ has the same amount of letters as the words ‘Mutton Stew.’” Eventually, Singer modified everything on the can into the Diné culture, representing Mutton Stew as one of its culturally tied foods.
Also featured in the exhibit is “Campbell’s Soup Can,” a late 1970s silk screen by Warhol depicting his famous style and a Warhol portrait of legendary American Indian artist Fritz Scholder. This painting was created in the 1980s when both artists were spending time in New York City and has never before been exhibited.
Each of these artistic forms reveals contemporary popular culture expressions created by American Indian artists, writers and filmmakers. Together, they express contemporary issues in a popular format which is sure to please younger audiences.