For the past 30 years, Blue Rain Gallery has unquestionably been the biggest and busiest gallery in Santa Fe during the annual SWAIA Indian Market. We don’t simply put on one Indian Market exhibition; we carefully curate an entire week of activities, demonstrations, events, and openings.
We do this not only to showcase work by some of today’s best and brightest Native artists, but also to educate collectors, provide context for how these works are created, and demonstrate how the artists we represent combine cultural traditions, identity, storytelling, and contemporary artistic approaches. Their work spans every medium, including painting, sculpture, glass, pottery, jewelry, katsina dolls, and mixed media.
We are able to offer all of this because our ongoing support and promotion of contemporary Indigenous art extends far beyond Indian Market weekend. We present exceptional examples of this work throughout the year—not only through our exhibitions, but also through artist lectures, demonstrations, and private studio visits.
Our 2026 Indian Market Celebration consists of two main events: our Native American Art Group Show on Thursday, August 13, from 5 to 7 p.m., and Preston Singletary’s solo exhibition, The Good, the Bad and the Raven, opening Friday, August 14, from 5 to 7 p.m. Alongside these two exhibitions, we will offer a wonderful lineup of talks, demonstrations, and lectures throughout the weekend.
Our August 13 Native American Art Group Show features new work by Karen Clarkson (Choctaw); Greyshoes/Upton Ethelbah Jr. (Santa Clara Pueblo/White Mountain Apache); Dan Friday (Lummi Nation); Jesse Littlebird (Laguna and Kewa Pueblos); Ira Lujan (Taos Pueblo); Spooner Marcus (Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo); Thomas Breeze Marcus (Akimel O’odham and Tohono O’odham); Sheridan MacKnight (Hunkpapa Lakota and White Earth Chippewa); Jody Naranjo (Santa Clara Pueblo); Chris Pappan (Osage, Kaw, and Cheyenne River Sioux); Gabriel Mozart Abeyta/Ugly Pie (Diné and Taos Pueblo); Dolores Purdy (Caddo and Winnebago); Harlan Reano (Kewa Pueblo); Ryan Singer (Diné); Raven Skyriver (Tlingit); and Helen K. Tindel (Santa Clara Pueblo).
Also on Thursday, at 11 a.m., internationally renowned Tlingit glass artist Preston Singletary will give an artist lecture discussing the inspiration, storytelling, and creative process behind his newest exhibition, The Good, the Bad and the Raven.
Blue Rain Gallery has been a significant force in the Native American glass art movement since its beginning. Through our participation in art shows across the country, as well as our gallery programming, we have made important strides in elevating Indigenous glass art within the broader contemporary fine art world.
By bringing traditional cultural narratives together with contemporary glassmaking techniques, the gallery champions work that honors cultural heritage while continuing to push creative boundaries. We have produced a number of glass collaborations between Preston Singletary and Pueblo potters Tammy Garcia (Santa Clara Pueblo), Jody Naranjo (Santa Clara Pueblo), and Harlan Reano (Kewa Pueblo).
We will continue this work not only through Preston’s exhibition, but also through glassblowing demonstrations on Friday, August 14, and Saturday, August 15, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day. The demonstrations will feature work by Singletary, as well as Dan Friday, Ira Lujan and Spooner Marcus.
We have several events planned throughout the day on Friday, August 14. First is an artist lecture with Jesse Littlebird at 11 a.m. Littlebird is an acclaimed Pueblo painter who will share the inspiration, symbolism, and evolving visual language behind his contemporary paintings.
From noon to 3 p.m., we will present a painting demonstration with Choctaw painter Karen Clarkson. During the three-hour event, Clarkson will create a full series of small portrait studies. Clarkson was the cover artist for the 2025 Official Booth Guide for the SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market. Collectors love her portraits, especially those of children and those set against maps of the subjects’ homelands.
Our signature event of the weekend takes place Friday, August 14, from 5 to 7 p.m., when Preston Singletary reveals another new body of work in The Good, the Bad and the Raven, an exhibition created in collaboration with bestselling author Garth Stein. The exhibition combines the rich storytelling traditions of the Northwest Coast with the complexities of modern life, exploring themes such as technology, identity, environmental change, and cultural resilience.
Through his collaborations with various Blue Rain artists, Preston, along with gallery owner Leroy Garcia, has helped make contemporary Indigenous glass art a major force in the broader contemporary art world.
“Over the course of more than 25 years of collaboration, Preston Singletary and I have helped shape and establish a Native art glass movement,” says Garcia. “Preston stands not only as a pioneering force in the field, but as a distinguished ambassador for studio glass within Native communities.”
In addition to works by its represented artists, Blue Rain Gallery offers secondary-market pieces by notable Indigenous artists, including Tammy Garcia, Tony Abeyta, Allan Houser, John Nieto, Fritz Scholder, Roxanne Swentzell, Frank Howell, Virgil Ortiz, Nancy Youngblood, Richard Zane Smith, and others.
