Nanibah "Nani" Chacon (born 1980) is a

Diné The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States. With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...

and

Chicana Chicano or Chicana is a chosen identity for many Mexican Americans in the United States. The label ''Chicano'' is sometimes used interchangeably with ''Mexican American'', although the terms have different meanings. While Mexican-American iden ...

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

ist, and art educator. Her work has been installed at the

IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is a public tribal land-grant college in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The college focuses on Native American art. It operates the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), which is housed in the historic S ...

in Santa Fe, the

Navajo Nation Museum The Navajo Nation Museum is a museum and library on Navajo ground in Window Rock, Arizona. Its collections, exhibits, and other activities focus on the cultural history of the Navajo people. Its activities include traditional museum exhibits, a ...

in Window Rock, the ISEA International Arts and Technology Symposium, Old Town Lansing, and in the "Que Chola" Exhibition at the

National Hispanic Cultural Center The National Hispanic Cultural Center is an institution in Albuquerque, New Mexico dedicated to Hispanic culture, arts and humanities. The campus spans 20 acres and is located along the Rio Grande in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Avenida César Cháv ...

in Albuquerque, among other venues.

Early life

Chacon was born in

Gallup, New Mexico Zuni: ''Kalabwaki'' , settlement_type = City , nickname = "Indian Capital of the World" , motto = , image_skyline = Gallup, New Mexico.jpg , imagesize = 250px , image_caption ...

and raised in

Chinle, Arizona Chinle ( nv, ) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Apache County, Arizona, United States. The name in Navajo means "flowing out" and is a reference to the location where the water flows out of the Canyon de Chelly. The population was 4,518 at ...

and

Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

Art practice

At the age of 15, Chacon first became involved in

street art Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art. Street art has evolved from the early forms of defiant graff ...

and

graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

. After 10 years of producing street art, she began to make painted mural art. She then became part of the ''Honor the Treaties'' collective that produce work about Native peoples' rights and land issues.

Art career

Chacon's mural, ''She Taught Us to Weave'', was commissioned by the City of Albuquerque for the ISEA International Arts and Technology Symposium in 2012. This mural is part of the Wells Park Rail Corridor Mural Project and contains a low-power radio transmitter. In 2013, her mural, ''Against The Storm She Gathers Her Thoughts'', became the first mural installation in the

as a part of the ''Ch’ikééh Baa Hózhǫ'' exhibit. In conjunction with this exhibit, her work ''Na iiz Nah'', was selected for inclusion in the indigenous art zine, ''Ziindi''. Also in 2013, Chacon's work ''Manifestations of Glittering World'' was included in the ''Stands With A Fist: Contemporary Native Women Artists'' exhibit at the

Museum of Contemporary Native Arts The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is a public tribal land-grant college in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The college focuses on Native American art. It operates the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), which is housed in the historic ...

in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Chacon was included in the ''19th Young Latino Artists Exhibition'', entitled ''Y, Que? (And What!)'', at the

Mexic-Arte Museum Mexic-Arte Museum is a fine arts museum in Austin, Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 mill ...

in Austin, Texas, which presented multimedia artworks from emerging

Latinx ''Latinx'' is a neologism in American English which is used to refer to people of Latin American cultural or ethnic identity in the United States. The gender-neutral suffix replaces the ending of ''Latino'' and ''Latina'' that are typical o ...

artists, under the age of 35, that explored themes of race, class, gender, sexuality, and cultural identity. The same year, she was the featured artist speaker at the

Northern New Mexico College Northern New Mexico College is a public college in Española, New Mexico. History Northern was founded in El Rito, New Mexico in 1909 as the Spanish American Normal School, with the original mission of providing teacher training for the ar ...

conference ''Mapping Geographies of Self: Woman as First Environment.'' In 2015, Chacon was the lead artist on the largest mural in Albuquerque, ''Resilience''. For this mural, she partnered with the nonprofit youth arts organization, ''Working Classroom,'' and collaborated with a number of students from Albuquerque's Washington Middle School. That year, she also completed a mural on a wall of the Municipal Arts Gallery in Izhevsk, Russia. Chacon's work was featured in the ''Code Mixing: From Concrete to Canvas Exhibition'' at

Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana (MACLA) is a contemporary arts space focused on the Chicano and Latino experience and history, located in the SoFA district at 510 South First Street in San Jose, California. The museum was founded in ...

(MACLA) in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

in 2016. In 2017, she designed and installed the work ''Sing Our Rivers Red'', an installation honoring over 1,000 Indigenous Canadian women and girls who have been reported missing or killed since 1980, at the CHAC Gallery as a part of Denver, Colorado's Sing Our Rivers Red March. In the summer of 2017, Chacon and youth from Española completed the mural ''The River Flows Through It'' at the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center. The mural represents the diverse textile traditions of

Northern New Mexico Northern New Mexico in cultural terms usually refers to the area of heavy-Spanish settlement in the north-central part of New Mexico. However, New Mexico state government also uses the term to mean the northwest and north central, but to exclude ...

and includes elements that represent Navajo, Pueblo, and Spanish fiber art techniques. In fall 2018, Chacon participated in the

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

Womxn of Color Initiative

Artist-in-Residence Artist-in-residence, or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs which involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs which provide artists with space a ...

, a program which creates space for students to engage with

women of color The term "person of color" (plural, : people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "White people, white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily a ...

. As Estrella Torrez, a professor and one of the organizers of the Womxn of Color Initiative, said, "Nanibah Chacón is one of the most significant muralists working today. In addition to creating exceptionally beautiful works of art, her paintings address complex and poignant topics by foregrounding the stories of Indigenous womxn and Indigenous knowledges." She has also been a visiting artist at

Washington State University Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant unive ...

, where she created a mural installation.

Personal

Chacon lives in Albuquerque with her son. Her brother,

Raven Chacon Raven Chacon (born 1977) is a Diné-American composer, musician and artist. Born in Fort Defiance, Arizona within the Navajo Nation, Chacon became the first Native American to win a Pulitzer Prize for Music, for his '' Voiceless Mass'' in 2022. ...

, is a celebrated

sound artist Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in hybrid forms. According to Brandon LaBelle, sound art ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chacon, Nanibah 1980 births Living people 21st-century American artists 21st-century American women 21st-century Native Americans American contemporary painters Artists from New Mexico Hispanic and Latino American women in the arts Native American painters Navajo artists People from Gallup, New Mexico 20th-century Native Americans 20th-century Native American women 21st-century Native American women American muralists American women muralists Native American women artists Textile artists from Arizona Textile artists from New Mexico