Chelsea Kaiah
Lazy Stitch
August 10 – September 7, 2024
The Valley is pleased to present Lazy Stitch, a presentation of recent works that showcase Chelsea Kaiah’s most complex and labor-intensive skillwork practices alongside her most free-flowing and immediate material studies. The title of the exhibition is drawn from the name of a beading technique that involves using a long string of beads grouped together to fill large areas, which is often faster than individually tacking one bead down at a time. While this method is used in some of the works in this exhibition, the artist encourages viewers to see the irony in this title- as all of the works included are the result of a significant amount of skill, time, energy, intergenerational knowledge, and self-directed material learning.
Chelsea Kaiah (b. 1995) is White River Ute and White Mountain Apache / Irish settler, born on the Northern Ute reservation. She a passionate activist for Native rights, awareness, and sustainability. Her practice involves adapting traditional materials and techniques, such as pine needle weaving, porcupine quilling, and hide work, to address resilience, mental health, system reformation, and means of healing.
She earned her BFA at Watkins College of Art and Design in Nashville, Tennessee. She currently resides in Denver, Colorado. In 2022, Kaiah was awarded the Native Arts and Cultures LIFT grant for early career support and was invited to participate in Redline’s Artist-in-Residency program for emerging, contemporary Colorado artists. She also received The Greene Grant Fellowship that supports working artists. She currently serves as part of the Indigenous Advisory Council for the Denver Art Museum after being their fall 2022 Native Arts Artist in Residence.
