For over four decades, Emmi Whitehorse has turned her gaze to the American Southwest through large-scale, abstracted paintings. Rooted in the Navajo concept of Hózhó—a harmonious and sustainable balance between nature, people, and beauty in the cosmic order—the artist’s multimedia works present an alternative worldview to colonial extractivism. As a co-founder of the Indigenous art collective the Grey Canyon Group in the late-’70s, Whitehorse helped expand conceptions of Indigenous art beyond traditional craft and into the realms of abstraction and modernity.
On June 4, Whitehorse unveiled a new diptych titled Reseeding Chaco, 2026, at the Parrish Art Museum as part of its FRESH PAINT exhibition series. The painting’s burnished caramel surface echoes the New Mexico high desert, where the artist lives and works to this day. Mollusks, stars, brackets, ferns, arcs, and other more oblique symbols form a sui generis lexicon of mark-making, layers of sediment and time fossilized on the canvas.
Before her show at the Parrish, we caught up with Whitehorse in her Santa Fe studio to see how she creates her arcane landscapes.
What’s the first thing you do when you enter your studio?
Open the shades to let the light flow in, turn on music, and boil hot water to make myself a cup of green tea.
What’s on your studio playlist?
Alex Cortiz Radio, AES Dana Radio, Kruder & Dorfmeister Radio, all day long, every day.
What’s in your studio fridge?
Bottles of champagne and Icelandic water. One bag of mini Babybel cheese. Mini cans of Pellegrino, pink grapefruit sparkling water, and Fever-Tree tonic. Two packages of chocolate Stroopwafel.
If you could have a studio visit with one artist, dead or alive, who would it be?
Maybe Mark Rothko.
What’s the weirdest tool/instrument you can’t live without?
Champagne bottle clamp.
Who’s the first person you show something to?
My studio photographer is the first to see finished pieces because I’m working on the paintings right up until the minute the photographer arrives!
What’s the biggest studio mishap you’ve experienced?
When things go “sideways” with the mounting of large finished paper sheets, you end up with huge long wrinkles that can’t be fixed! I end up having to destroy a perfectly good, finished work.
There are a lot of costs that come with being an artist. Where do you splurge and where do you save?
I always splurge on printmaking paper rolls and travel to museum shows to see what other artists are up to. I save on turpentine and cheap paint brushes.
Have you ever destroyed a work to make something new?
I prefer to use the term “recycle.” Sometimes I cut up old lithographs and collage the pieces onto current works.
On a scale of hoarder to Marie Kondo, where do you fall?
I’m happy to say close to Marie Kondo. I know where everything I have is!
Is there a studio rule you live by?
I make sure to be in the studio painting every day I’m in Santa Fe, so I don’t have any guilt while traveling out of town.
When was the last time you felt jealous of another artist?
I’m only jealous when I hear an artist talking eloquently about their own artwork because it’s so hard for me to talk about my work.
Tell us about the best studio visit you’ve ever had.
My meeting with 2024 Venice Biennial curator, Adriano Pedrosa! What made it so great was that I didn’t know who he was at the time.
Any rituals to prepare for a studio visit?
Sweep the floor and clean the studio sink, so it doesn’t look like I “butchered a cow.”
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received from another artist?
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