Artwork copyright Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2017.

Artwork copyright Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2017.

Artwork copyright Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Grandmother (from the Portraits Against Amnesia series), 2003

Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie
American Diné (Navajo) Muscogee (Creek) Seminole of Oklahoma (born 1954)

Location: University of Washington, Seattle

About the Artwork

Artist Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie uses vintage photographs of Indigenous peoples—both from her family's collection and those she finds. Her artworks depict a sense of strength, defiance, connection, and remembrance. This artwork is part of a collection of artworks located in the University of Washington's Kane Hall. The collection pays tribute to the diversity of UW's campus community and features nine artists whose art explores identity. Student leaders from the UW Minority Think Tank were involved in the selection of the artworks in 2005.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with University of Washington.

About the Artist

Tsinhnahjinnie was born into the Bear Clan of the Taskigi Nation and the Tsinajinnie Clan of the Diné (Navajo) Nation. She grew up in Arizona. She studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1981. She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from University of California, Irvine in 2002. Tsinhnahjinnie serves as a professor of Native American Studies and as the Director of the Gorman Museum, both at the University of California, Davis.