Artist Talk & Workshop: Summer Herrera
IN PERSON
Schedule
1:30-2:15pm Artist talk, Getty Gallery
2:30-4:30pm Artist-facilitated workshop, Courtyard
Join artist Summer Herrera for an afternoon of storytelling, reflection, and hands-on creation. Herrera will begin by discussing her work Péshlish tò’xat, featured in the Fire Kinship exhibition, and its deep cultural and personal meaning. Created with clay gathered from traditional Luiseño lands, the piece embodies a relationship to land and fire (kút) that has existed among Luiseño peoples since time immemorial. Following her talk, Herrera will guide participants in using native clay to form pinch pots and small sculptural works.
Summer Herrera is a multidisciplinary artist and educator whose practice interrogates the notion of authenticity—an often overused concept in both Native and art world spaces. Her work challenges the historical and ongoing pressures to present Indigenous peoples and practices as “whole” and exposes the deep-rooted American values that shape public perceptions of what it means to be an “authentic” Californian Native person. As a Luiseño woman and former dual citizen of sovereign nations—once enrolled in a federally recognized tribe—Herrera navigates the complex and often paternalistic systems that seek to define or deny her identity. Through visual storytelling, she explores the lived realities, inherited struggles, and enduring strengths of California Indian women today. Her work is rooted in her continuing role within a kinship system—an unbroken lineage of Páyoomkawichum from Southern California—asserting presence, sovereignty, and cultural continuity through creative expression.
Photo by Todd Westphal
