New Paintings by Jesse Littlebird and Chris Pappan are on view at Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe February 27–March 12, 2026, bringing together two distinct voices in contemporary Native painting.
Jesse Littlebird and Chris Pappan
February 27–March 12, 2026
Blue Rain Gallery, Santa Fe
Blue Rain Gallery presents New Paintings by Jesse Littlebird and Chris Pappan, a dual exhibition that brings together two contemporary voices pushing the boundaries in Native art. On view from February 27 through March 12, 2026, in Santa Fe, the exhibition highlights distinct yet complementary explorations of lineage, transformation, and creative evolution.
For Laguna and Kewa Pueblo artist Jesse Littlebird, Meditations on Fire emerges from ceremony, memory, and profound personal loss. Created in the months following the passing of his father, artist and storyteller Larry Littlebird, the series reflects on fire as spiritual companion and witness. Drawing on the teachings carried through early-morning and evening ceremonies, Littlebird considers what it means to inherit responsibility—to land, to story, and to those who came before. Layered washes, ember-like gestures, and fields of shifting color evoke the “blue hour,” a liminal threshold where night and day meet and where memory glows with quiet intensity. The paintings move between grief and gratitude, becoming conversations rendered in pigment and light.
Chris Pappan (Kaw/Osage/Cheyenne River Sioux), long recognized for his incisive figurative and ledger-based works, introduces a new body of paintings that signals an intentional shift. Incorporating geometric forms and bold color fields, Pappan leans into Native-centered abstraction as both inquiry and expansion. While maintaining a foundation in representation, these works explore the power of editing, balance, and compositional clarity, foregrounding process as a site of discovery. The shift reflects a broader engagement with the historical and global presence of Indigenous abstraction, opening space for experimentation while remaining grounded in cultural context.
Together, Littlebird and Pappan illuminate the vitality and multiplicity of contemporary Native painting. One turns inward toward ceremony and ancestral dialogue; the other outward toward formal exploration and structural reinvention. In conversation, their works underscore how Native art continues to evolve while rooted in lineage, yet unbound in possibility.
An artist reception will be held Friday, February 27, 5-7 pm, at Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe.
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