Native American art, the visual art of the aboriginal inhabitants of the Americas, often called American Indians. For a further discussion of the visual art of the Americas produced in the period after European contact, see Latin American art.

Today, we have over 18,000 objects by artists from over 250 Indigenous nations. The work encapsulates multiple artistic traditions from these cultures, and ranges from ancient times to the present.

The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) has one of the most extensive collections of Native American arts and artifacts in the world—approximately 266,000 catalog records (825,000 items) representing over 12,000 years of history and more than 1,200 indigenous cultures throughout the Americas.

Nov 9, 2021 · From art world veterans who have been using their work to advocate for Native rights for decades to a younger generation of artists who are using traditional techniques to address contemporary issues, here is a list of some of the most influential Native American artists living and working today.

Indigenous American visual arts include portable arts, such as painting, basketry, textiles, or photography, as well as monumental works, such as architecture, land art, public sculpture, or murals. Some Indigenous art forms coincide with Western art forms; however, some, such as porcupine quillwork or birchbark biting are unique to the Americas.

Dec 17, 2021 · Native art from the Americas includes Native American sculpture, textiles, basket weaving, Native American paintings, murals, and Native American drawings from North and South America, as well as parts of Siberia, Alaska, and Greenland.

May 26, 2023 · Artists Joe Feddersen (Arrow Lakes/Okanagan), Lily Hope (Tlingit), Ursala Hudson (Tlingit), Erica Lord (Athabaskan/Iñupiat), Geo Neptune (Passamaquoddy), and Maggie Thompson (Fond du Lac Ojibwe) present a fresh and nuanced vision of Native American art.

Across the United States, Native American artists are making trailblazing art. These contemporary creators connect Native histories with the present moment. Learn more about their work along with artists who came before them.

Honoring the diversity of Native life, the display reveals complex perspectives on America’s past and the deep significance of these artworks to Native and non-Native communities in the present.

The term Native American art covers an extremely broad category, encompassing all art expressions of the original inhabitants of the Americas and their cognate descendants. It thus includes not only varied and completely disparate cultures but also spans great time sequences—from the early 21st century back to prehistoric times.