Mace, Dakota

Diné, b. 1991

BiographyIn this series, Dakota Mace digitally manipulates photographs she made of the American Southwest landscape to disrupt a recognizable depiction of the place. She then hand-embroiders beaded designs onto the paper, drawing inspiration from Diné cultural patterns and traditions. The series is a commentary on distorted histories of land in the United States that do not articulate the actual history of theft from Indigenous peoples, suggesting that the true stories and legacies are deeply embedded in the land.

Dakota Mace completed her MA and MFA in Photography and Textile Design at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her BFA in Photography at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at the Textile Society of America, Washington, D.C; the Wright Art Museum, Beloit, WI; the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH; Kemper Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO; Boston University, and the Wallach Art Gallery, New York, NY.