Early life and education
Urness was born in Washington, adopted at the age of four and raised by her great-great uncle and aunt. Her guardians fostered her education in tribal arts and history with the Alaskan Native Cultural Heritage Association in Seattle from kindergarten through high school graduation, ensuring that her Indigenous education was an integral part of her upbringing. While her non-native schoolmates had soccer practices on school nights and games on the weekends, she and her twin sister gathered with other Tlingit youth and elders to don their traditional regalia, learn, practice and share their traditional songs and dances. With her tribe, she traveled the state of Washington, the United States, and even overseas to Europe performing and sharing their stories with the world as a cultural ambassador. The experience left a lasting impression that would later become the foundation of her photographic work. At the age of seven, Urness received her first camera from her grandmother. Photography became her passion and professional pursuit. She attended college and earned art degrees from Skagit Valley College in Mount Vernon, Washington and theEarly career
After college graduation in 2008, she initially thought she would become a magazine photographer and began freelancing in Santa Barbara and Seattle shooting for Outside and Trend magazines, but an "aha" moment took her in another direction. In her early career, she began studying the work of Edward S. Curtis, a world renowned documentary photographer of European descent whose mission was to document Indigenous peoples as a 'vanishing race.' His black and white and sepia toned portraits of Native subjects in their traditional regalia comprise some of the earliest and most revered photographic records of Native Americans in existence. In viewing Curtis' images, something clicked for Urness. Rather than seeing the works as relics of the past, she saw herself and her own tribal members in those images. She felt an instant calling to pick up her camera and be the one behind the lens, a modern Indigenous woman, capturing and telling the visual narrative of Native peoples and cultures not vanishing, but very much alive today. In 2014, she catapulted her own career with a Kickstarter campaign for her first photo project, 'Native Americans: Keeping the Traditions Alive', "to emphasize critically endangered languages captured with video and still imagery." In this project she photographed tribes across the US, including visits to the Havasupai at the bottom of theCareer honors and accomplishments
Urness has shown her work in international and domestic US art exhibitions, been published in major media publications, had her work acquired by museums, hung her work in galleries in the US and overseas, and participated in many Native art shows and markets. Her greatest honors in the art market circuit include showing her Alaskan work at the Indigenous Fine Art Market andPersonal life
Urness gave birth to her first child in winter 2021.Awards
* 2018:Acquisitions
"Raven Tells his Story in the Fog" * 2021: Tacoma Art Museum – Tacoma, WA * 2018: Western Spirit Scottsdale's Museum of the West – Scottsdale, AZ * 2017: Birmingham Museum of Art: Birmingham, Alabama "December 5th, 2016: No Spiritual Surrender" * 2018: Autry Museum of the American West, 40x32 Desaturated Metallic C-Print mounted to plexiglass Edition 1 of 1 * 2017: Birmingham Museum of Art, 50x40 Metallic C-Print mounted to plexiglass Edition 1 of 1Galleries
* 2018: Webster Collections- Santa Fe, NM * 2017 to present: Altamira Fine Art, Scottsdale, AZ /Jackson Hole, WY * 2017: Zohi, Santa Fe, NM * 2016 to present: Mountain Trails Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico * 2015 to 2017: Rainmaker Gallery, Bristol, United Kingdom * 2015: Manitou Galleries, Santa Fe, NMExhibitions
"Hearts of our People: Native American Women in the Arts", Traveling Group Exhibition produced by Minneapolis Institute of Art * 2020 Fall: Renwick Gallery / Smithsonian Institution Washington DC * 2020 Summer: Philbrook Museum of Art, Oklahoma * 2020 Spring: Fowler Museum UCL A, California * 2019- 2020 September to January: First Center of Visual Arts Nashville, Tennessee * 2019 May to August: Minneapolis Institute of Art Minneapolis, Minnesota "Borrowing the Earth", Russian Traveling Group Exhibition (10 images provided by artist) * 2019 February to March: Orenburg Fine Arts Museum * 2019 March to April: Ufa Fina Arts Museum * 2019 May to June: Izhevsk * 2019 July to August: Noviy Urengoy * 2019 August to September: Noyabrsk * 2019 September to October: South Urals History Museum in Chelyabinsk * 2019 November to December: Tyumen Fine Arts Museum "Beyond Standing Rock", Group Exhibition * 2019 February to August: Santa Fe, New Mexico "Zoe Urness: Keeping the Traditions Alive", Solo Exhibition * 2017–2018 November to May:Publications
* 2018 January:References
External links
* Western Art Collector. Issue 152. April 2020. https://www.westernartcollector.com/issues/152 * Native American Art Magazine. August September 2017 Issue. https://www.zinio.com/native-american-art-magazine/august-september-2017-no-10-i386575 * Arney, Sarah. "SHS grad finds herself at Standing Rock". Stanwood Camano News. September 5, 2017. https://www.goskagit.com/scnews/news/shs-grad-finds-herself-at-standing-rock/article_694f41b6-12e8-5555-b391-c2cdbe020f96.html * Jacobs, Alex. "The Santa Fe Zohi Gallery: Amazing Native Art and a Virtual Standing Rock Bicycle Tour". Indian Country Today. August 22, 2017. https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/santa-fe-zohi-gallery-amazing-native-art-virtual-standing-rock-bicycle-tour * Native Peoples Magazine. 2017 issue. * BLOUIN International Art Collector Magazine. 2016 issue. Retired from publication. https://www.amazon.com/BLOUIN-AUCTION-INTERNATIONAL-MAGAZINE-COLLECTORS/dp/B07FM5RTP3 {{DEFAULTSORT:Urness, Zoe Marieh 1984 births Living people Photographers from Washington (state) Native American photographers Brooks Institute alumni Native American women photographers People from Stanwood, Washington 21st-century American photographers 21st-century American women photographers 21st-century Native American women 21st-century Native American artists Tlingit women artists Cherokee women artists