Native Action Network Gallery
Artwork by Sarah Folden
About the Gallery
Native Action Network hosts rotating exhibitions featuring Indigenous artists in their new gallery space in Belltown, Seattle. Exhibitions are organized in collaboration with yəhaw̓ Indigenous Creatives Collective, and funded by Friends of Waterfront Seattle.
Please note that there is one flight of stairs to Native Action Network's office from the ground floor. Unfortunately, there is not an elevator or other accommodations available. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Current Exhibitions
One With the Waters
Sarah Folden
September 8 – December 5, 2023
Native Action Network is proud to present the exhibition One With the Waters featuring artwork by Sarah Folden. A member of the Cowlitz Tribe, Sarah creates contemporary Coast Salish art inspired by her connection to place. Her work celebrates the vitality of Cowlitz people, their bold and colorful spirits, ancestral waters, animal relatives and all connected in nature. Cowlitz people are water-going people who refused to sign treaties with the federal government. This has created a diverse population. Over time many have traveled from their ancestral waters, some even across oceans, but much like our salmon relatives, there is an instinctive drive that calls Native people home. Sarah Folden’s artwork is created in honor of those still here, those who have made that voyage and those who are awakening to their internal calling to return.
Come celebrate the artist during the opening reception Friday, September 8, 6-8pm, at NAN’s office space at 55 Bell Street, Seattle. Light bites and refreshments will be available. The show will be up September 8 – December 5, 2023, accessible during Belltown Art Walks every second Friday evening of the month. To schedule a private viewing appointment email info@nativeactionnetwork.org.
About Sarah Folden
Sarah Folden, Olympia based artist and Cowlitz tribal member, creates art inspired by her heritage and the natural world around her. After a career in tribal fisheries for the Treaty Tribes of the Pacific Northwest and her natural passion for creating, she became a self taught artist who was eventually fortunate to study Coast Salish design from esteemed native artists Brian Perry and Peter Boome. Sarah’s work is both traditional and contemporary. She enjoys painting with many mediums, carved block printmaking and recently finds challenging excitement and growth in graphic design creating mascots for local school districts on Cowlitz land inspired by Coast Salish art.
Her public art spans the Pacific Northwest from Orcas Island to the Columbia River. Sarah has joined the Membership Board for Whipsmart, Washington States only trade association dedicated to supporting the creative community. Sarah teaches Coast Salish art to native youth and volunteers supporting environmental and social causes. Recently Sarah was selected by the Washington State Arts Commission for the Clark College Boschma Farms project coming in 2024 and has multiple murals throughout the northwest going up this year. When she’s not working she can be found on Tax'oma (Mt. Rainier) with her family, gathering inspiration from this beautiful place we call home.
Reception photos by HallVisuals
Past Exhibitions
Into the Circle
Margaret Morris
July 14 - September 6, 2023
Native Action Network is proud to present our summer exhibition, Into the Circle, featuring artwork by Margaret Morris - Sya Yeik’. Margaret is based in Edmonds, Washington. She has been creating art for decades, using formline design on elk hide drums, dance robes, tunics, beadwork, carving and weaving. She seamlessly translates ancestral imagery into traditional and contemporary media. Her work reminds us that art is the heartbeat of our people, resonating through generations, like the steady boom of a drum.
About the Artist
For over thirty years I have been making elk hide drums painted with my form-line designs. I participated in artist markets and shows throughout Washington State, including Women on the Brink, Paramount Theatre’s Re:definition, NW Folklife Festival, Daybreak Star, Evergreen State College Longhouse, Duwamish Longhouse, Karshner Museum and many Tlingit and Haida events. Events outside of Seattle include Juneau, Alaska at Celebration, in Anchorage at Alaska Federation of Natives, in New York Native film festival and in Washington D.C. at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. I love creating new designs and reminding people: Natives are not the past, we are still here and carrying on our traditional art.
Artwork by Raven Juarez.
Familiar Place
Raven Juarez
March 10 - June 6, 2023
Native Action Network is proud to present our spring show, Familiar Place, featuring work by Raven Juarez. Raven intuitively layers images of plants, open skies, and family faces with found materials to create artworks that feel both intimate, and universal. This exhibition will feature never-before-seen pieces, unearthed from the artist’s personal archive. Raven is a mixed-race descendant of the Blackfeet Tribe, born and raised in Seattle's diverse urban Native population. She attended many of NAN’s conferences and events as a child with her mother, an Enduring Spirit Awardee. Now a new mother herself, we are excited to welcome Raven into the NAN sisterhood with her first solo exhibition in Washington.
About the Artist
Born and based in Seattle, Raven Juarez is a contemporary Native artist, teacher, and presenter. Juarez attended Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY and spent a year abroad in Florence, Italy, to study painting, drawing, printmaking as well as Italian art and film history. She graduated in 2013 with a BA in the liberal arts, with concentrations in Child Psychology/Development and Visual Arts.
Learn more about her work at @raven_inthetrees on Instagram or ravenjuarez.com.
Artwork by Liz Rideau.
Generation After Generation
Liz Rideau and Sondra Segundo
February 10 - March 4, 2023
Native Action Network is proud to present the exhibition Generation After Generation featuring artwork by Liz Rideau and Sondra Segundo. Strong Haida matriarchs born into Seattle's diverse urban Native population, both women use art to express their sacred connection to culture, community, and place. Cousins Sondra and Liz are proud participants in NAN's past programs, and represent our organization's core values as empowered Native women leaders doing good work for our people.
About Liz Rideau
Re-emerging mixed media artist, Liz Rideau is an enrolled member of the Haida Tribe from Southeast Alaska and a Filipino American born and raised in South Seattle. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest’s urban multi-cultural environment helped her balance city-minded street smarts with a strong connection to nature and her people. She graduated from Pepperdine University with a Fine Arts Degree in 2003 and is now a wife, mother of 3 and operations manager for a local foundation.
Liz was a member of Native Action Network's first Legacy of Leadership cohort in 2017, and remains a committed NAN volunteer and advocate.
Photo by Mel Ponder.
About Sondra Segundo
Sondra Segundo is a published author, artist and singer of the Haida language. She is an educator and has worked in schools and programs throughout the Northwest, teaching art and sharing her stories and songs. Everything Sondra does tells the story of her beloved people. All of her writings, song compositions, NW Coast Native art pieces, children's books, traditional dance, cultural teachings, language preservation work and community activism are all intertwined by her passion of reclaiming her Haida culture and sharing it from an Indigenous perspective.
Sondra received an Enduring Spirit Award from Native Action Network in 2020.