For Maria: Rose B. Simpson and Pueblo Pottery
Saturday, August 23, 2025 - Sunday, February 15, 2026
This Spotlight exhibition marked a historic moment for Vassar: earlier in the summer of 2025, "Seed," a large-scale steel and bronze sculpture by Rose B. Simpson, born and raised in Santa Clara Pueblo (in Tewa, Khaʼpʼoe Ówîngeh) near Santa Fe, New Mexico, was installed near the northwest corner of campus. "Seed" was the first work by an Indigenous artist to enter our campus art collection. To celebrate this occasion, the Loeb presents three of Simpson’s preliminary drawings for "Seed" alongside "Maria," a pair of lithographs of the artist’s restored and painted ’85 El Camino. Together, Simpson’s works, along with examples of black-on-black pottery by Tewa artists Maria and Julian Martinez from the neighboring San Ildefonso Pueblo, challenge the restrictive narratives of art, tradition, and public space.
This selection of works is an homage to the influence of Maria Martinez as an innovator and a guide for generations of artists, including Simpson. Simpson shares not only a Pueblo heritage, but also a deep artistic lineage with Martinez, one grounded in matrilineal transmission, shared clay practices, and design motifs that reflect the surrounding landscape. Though working across different mediums, Simpson sees her work as a continuation of this legacy.
The Martinezes’ distinctive black-on-black technique drew on long-standing methods practiced across Pueblo communities, including Santa Clara. Simpson extends that legacy into new forms: steel, performance, custom vehicles, and beyond, while still embedding her work with symbols like spirals, feathers, mountains, and clouds. These designs connect her to the land and a tradition of experimentation passed through generations.
For Simpson, art is not about solitary authorship but about community, memory, and care. Her works are sent into the world as emissaries of the past, honoring mentors like Maria while
forging new paths rooted in shared ground.
Organized by Summer Curatorial Student Assistant, Katherine Bernstein, Vassar College, Class of ’27. Support for Spotlight is provided by Mary Ellen Weisl Rudolph ’61, P’98 and James N.
Rudolph P’98.
This selection of works is an homage to the influence of Maria Martinez as an innovator and a guide for generations of artists, including Simpson. Simpson shares not only a Pueblo heritage, but also a deep artistic lineage with Martinez, one grounded in matrilineal transmission, shared clay practices, and design motifs that reflect the surrounding landscape. Though working across different mediums, Simpson sees her work as a continuation of this legacy.
The Martinezes’ distinctive black-on-black technique drew on long-standing methods practiced across Pueblo communities, including Santa Clara. Simpson extends that legacy into new forms: steel, performance, custom vehicles, and beyond, while still embedding her work with symbols like spirals, feathers, mountains, and clouds. These designs connect her to the land and a tradition of experimentation passed through generations.
For Simpson, art is not about solitary authorship but about community, memory, and care. Her works are sent into the world as emissaries of the past, honoring mentors like Maria while
forging new paths rooted in shared ground.
Organized by Summer Curatorial Student Assistant, Katherine Bernstein, Vassar College, Class of ’27. Support for Spotlight is provided by Mary Ellen Weisl Rudolph ’61, P’98 and James N.
Rudolph P’98.
Venues
Spotlight Gallery