Mario A. Caro

“Indexicality as Kinship: The Relationality of Native Photography.”

In Indigenous Identities: Here, Now & Always. Ed. Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. New Brunswick: Zimmerli Art Museum, 2025.

“The Venice Indigenous Arts School.”

In Jeffrey Gibson: The Space in Which to Place Me. Ed. Abigail Winograd and Christian Ayne Crouch. New York, Portland, Hudson, Santa Fe, Annandale-on-Hudson: DelMonico Books, Portland Art Museum, BIG NDN Press, SITE Santa Fe, Bard Center for Indigenous Studies, 2025.

先住民の現代アートの到来！ (Contemporary Indigenous Art Has Arrived!)

“Contemporary Art by Indigenous Peoples,” Bijutsu Techo 76, no. 1102 (2024): 134–145.

“What Shall We Do with the Bodies? Reconsidering the Archive in the Aftermath of Fraud.”

American Indian Culture and Research Journal (2019) 43 (4): 1–8.

“The Returning Tide.”

In Tears of Duk’WibahL: International Gathering of Indigenous Visual Artists of the Pacific Rim. Eds. Mario A. Caro, Tina Kuckkahn-Miller, and Laura VerMeulen. Olympia, WA: House of Welcome Publishing, 2019.

“Dialectic Dialoguing: Representing an Indigenous Avant-Garde in the Museum.”

In Without Boundaries: Visual Conversations. Anchorage: Anchorage Museum of Art, 2016.

“Manufacturing Nostalgia: Trauma, Tradition, and Nationalism.”

In Mother/Land. Ed. Machiko Harada. Kurumaya Museum, 2014.

“Owning the Image: Indigenous Arts since 1990.”

In Manifestations: New Native Art Criticism. Ed. Nancy Marie Mithlo. Santa Fe: Institute of American Indian Arts, 2011.

Review of About Face: Self-Portraits by Native American, First Nations, and Inuit Artists

By Zena Pearlstone, Allan J. Ryan, et al. American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 32:2 (2008): 109–112.

“The NMAI and the Siting of Identity.”

In The National Museum of the American Indian: Critical Conversations. Eds. Amy Lonetree and Amanda J. Cobb. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008.

“It’s in Our Forms.”

In It’s in Our Forms: Selected Interviews with Northwest Native Carvers. Ed. Mario A. Caro. Olympia: House of Welcome Publishing, 2008.

“You Are Here: The National Museum of the American Indian as Site of Identification.”

American Indian Quarterly, 30:4 (Fall 2006): 543–557.

“Persistent Encounters: Maintaining Indigenous Identity through Cultural Exchange.”

In Hit’emlkiliiksix “Within the Circle of the Rim”: Nations Gathering on Common Ground. Ed. Mario A. Caro. Seattle: Hemlock Press, 2002.

“Laura Aguilar.”

In St. James Guide to Hispanic Artists: Profiles of Latino and Latin American Artists. Ed. Thomas Riggs. Detroit: St. James Press, 2002.

“Desiring the End of Testimonio: Rigoberta Menchú inside the Teaching Machine.”

S — The European Journal for Semiotic Studies. 9:1 (1997): 11–32.

“Inter-disciplining the Internet: Territory, Desire, and the Virtual Academy.”

Brief. “Voices and Visions of Otherness.” ASCA Press: Amsterdam (1997): 214–216.

“From Subaltern to Organic Intellectual: Re-(e)valuating Rigoberta Menchú’s Testimonio.”

Acolit. Special Issue No. 2, “Can ‘the Subaltern’ Be Read? The Role of the Critic in Postcolonial Studies.” Ed. Tobias Döring, Uwe Schäfer, and Mark Stein. (1996): 9–22.

Contemporary Native American Art

Eds. Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Neal Ambrose-Smith, and Mario A. Caro. Thames & Hudson (World of Art series).

It’s in Our Forms: Selected Interviews with Northwest Native Carvers

Ed. Mario A. Caro. Olympia: House of Welcome Publishing, 2008.

Cultural Luminaries: Illuminating the Past, Lighting the Way into the Future

Eds. Mario A. Caro, Tina Kuckkahn, and Esmé Ryan. Olympia, Washington: House of Welcome Publishing, 2006.

Hit’emlkiliiksix “Within the Circle of the Rim”: Nations Gathering on Common Ground

Eds. Mario A. Caro, Tina Kuckkahn, and Laura Grabhorn. Seattle: Hemlock Press, 2002.

In[ ]Visible Culture: An Electronic Journal for Visual Studies

ivc.lib.rochester.edu

S — The European Journal for Semiotic Studies

Special issue on “Territorialism and Desire,” co-edited with Mieke Bal. Volume 9, no. 1 (1997).

Curating Indigeneity: Identity, Presence & Narratives

American Association of Art Museum Curators, Seattle, Washington, USA

Part of a panel discussing the challenges of curating Indigenous cultures. The other participants included America Meredith, Nancy Marie Mithlo, and Debra Yepa-Pappan. The panel was organized and moderated by Tahnee Ahtoneharjo-Growingthunder.

International Indigenous Arts Today: Engaging Parallel Art Worlds

Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA

Public lecture analyzing trends in Indigenous participation at international venues, as part of the Indigenous Curation: Asserting Our Narratives lecture series.

21st Contemporary Art Biennial Videobrasil: Imagined Communities

Sesc, São Paulo, Brazil

Participant in seminar titled “Resistance and the Image in the Production of the Indigenous World” with Ampam Karakras and Kamikia Kisêdjê.

Tilting Axis 5: Beyond Trends: Decolonisation and Art Criticism

Mémorial ACTe, Guadeloupe

Co-organized conference on decolonizing art criticism. Chaired panel discussion with Dominique Brebion, Jocelyn Valton, Hrag Vartanian.

Ethnic Fraud and American Indian Representation in Museums

New Orleans

Presentation on museum best practices at the American Alliance of Museums annual conference.

Exploring Sustainability under the Midnight Sun

Rovaniemi, Lapland, Finland

Co-organized Res Artis conference on arts and tourism, which included organizing a panel on “Ethical Tourism and Indigenous Cultures.”

Tilting Axis 4: Caribbean Cultural Ecologies: Connecting Pasts, Presents and Futures

Centro León and Centro Cultural de España, Dominican Republic

Co-organized conference on cultural practices in the Caribbean, hosted by Centro León and Centro Cultural de España and co-organized with the Pérez Art Museum Miami, National Art Gallery of the Bahamas, National Gallery of the Cayman Islands, Fresh Milk Art Platform, and Res Artis.

Fraud and American Indian Representation in Museums

Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, Los Angeles

Presented lecture titled “What Shall We Do with the Bodies? Reconsidering the Archive in the Aftermath of Fraud,” which called for a re-assessment of Jimmie Durham’s archive.

The Past, Present, and Future of International Indigenous Curatorial Practices

Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, Los Angeles

Organized panel on the state of international Indigenous curation. Panelists included heather ahtone, Miranda Belarde-Lewis, Megan Tamati-Quennell, and Nancy Marie Mithlo.

Zooetics

Art, Culture, and Technology Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Respondent for panel on “Creating Indigenous Futures,” in conference on addressing the Anthropocene, which included presentations by Courtney M. Leonard (Shinnecock), Jackson Polys (Tlingit), Kite (Oglala Lakota), and organized by Erin Genia (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate).

Tai Ahiahi /// Tai Awatea: Curating Contemporary Māori Art

City Gallery Wellington, Wellington, Aotearoa/New Zealand

Presented keynote lecture titled “Curating Culture/Cultural Curating: Community and the Curation of Indigenous Arts” at conference assessing fifty years of Māori curating.

Tears of Duk’WibahL Gathering of Pacific Rim Artists

Longhouse Education and Cultural Center, Olympia, Washington

Helped to organize an international gathering of 109 Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, First Nations, Māori and other Pacific Rim Indigenous artists.

Tilting Axis 3: Curating the Caribbean

National Gallery of the Cayman Islands

Co-organized conference on curatorial practices in the Caribbean, which was co-organized with the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands, Pérez Art Museum Miami, ARC Inc., Fresh Milk Art Platform, and Res Artis. Also chaired panel on “Curating the Archive,” which included Eddie Chambers (Professor of Art and Art History at the University of Texas, Austin), Tiffany Boyle (Curator and co-founder of Mother Tongue, Scotland) and Miguel A. López (Chief curator of TEOR/éTica in San José, Costa Rica).

Taking It to the Next Level: Challenges and Promises of Internationalizing Indigenous Art

University of Hawai‘i

Co-organized a two-panel session with Karen Kosasa as part of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association meeting.

Tilting Axis 2: Caribbean Strategies

Pérez Art Museum, Miami, Florida

Co-organized, along with Fresh Milk and the Pérez Art Museum, a conference considering the sustainability of the cultural ecosystem in the Caribbean.

Microresidence Forum 2015

Saitama, Japan

Keynote speech at Saitama Triennale event on networking as an avant-garde practice.

Concerning Violence

Cinemapolis, Ithaca, NY

Participated in panel discussion of Göran Hugo Olsson’s film on Frantz Fanon.

Contemporary Indigenous Art Practices: A Conversation with Dana Claxton and Edgar Heap of Birds

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Moderated a discussion with Dana Claxton and Edgar Heap of Birds as part of the programming for “The Plains Indians: Artists of the Earth and Sky” exhibition.

Tilting Axis: Within and Beyond the Caribbean | Shifting Models of Sustainability and Connectivity

Fresh Milk, Barbados

Co-organized, along with Fresh Milk and the Pérez Art Museum, the first meeting of cultural sector representatives from across the Caribbean to negotiate strategic regional and international alliances.

Art and/as Cultural Diplomacy

Kyoto Art Center, Japan

Keynote talk at the inaugural meeting of the Artist in Residency Network in Japan.

Toward an Uncommon Wealth: Building Alliances in Opposition to Colonial Legacies

David Dale Gallery, Glasgow

Moderated panel on contemporary cultural production within the British Commonwealth.

Asia-Australia-Europe Creative Residency Network

Melbourne, Australia

Co-organized meeting to initialize cultural exchange network emphasizing access and reciprocity between Asia, Australia, and Europe.

Juror for residency program at Artport Residency

Tel Aviv, Israel

Beyond Transnationalism: Considering the Limits of Transnationalism in International Cultural Exchanges

São Paulo, Brazil

Paper presented at the 18th Videobrasil Festival.

From Patronage to Philanthropy: Preliminary Notes on Theorizing the Financial Support of Contemporary Indigenous Arts

Denver, Colorado

Co-organized panel with Nancy Mithlo at Native American Art Studies Association meeting.

Networking Networks: Res Artis and Global Cultural Exchange

Boston, MA

Presentation on the networks that constitute the international field of art residencies.

Indigenizing the Curriculum: MFA in Indigenous Arts

Olympia, WA

Workshop on developing curriculum for new MFA at Evergreen State College.

Curating beyond Modernism: Indigenous Curation and Contemporary Art

College Art Association, New York

Paper presented at College Art Association as part of panel titled “Engagements between Indigenous and Contemporary Art” chaired by Ian McLean.

New Horizons for Creative Platforms

Tokyo, Japan

Co-organized bi-annual meeting of Res Artis international network of art residencies.

The Life and Death of Objects: Museums, Ethics, and Aesthetics

Delivered the annual Ezra A. Hale Ethics Lecture at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Residencies: Gates and Bridges

Vienna, Austria

Co-organized conference on Eastern European Residencies with KulturKontakt.

Assessment and Innovation in the Field of Art Residencies

Bellagio, Italy

Co-organized conference on assessment methodologies with the Rockefeller Foundation and the Alliance of Artists Communities.

Historicizing Contemporary Indigenous Aesthetics

Public lecture at Arizona State University.

Cultural Exchange International Grant

City of Los Angeles

Juror on selection panel for international cultural exchange awards.

Working Progress: The World of Art Residencies

Public lecture at Shin Minatomura, BankArt, Yokohama Triennial, Japan.

Traumatic Nostalgia: Themes in Contemporary Indigenous Photography

Lecture at the Yamaguchi Institute for Contemporary Art, Yamaguchi, Japan.

Essentially Indigenous? Contemporary Native Arts Symposium

Co-organized with Kathleen Ash-Milby, a symposium on contemporary Indigenous arts at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York City.

Essential Aesthetics: An Exploration of Contemporary Indigenous Art and Identity

Santa Fe

Organized a seminar on essentialism and contemporary Indigenous art practices co-sponsored by the National Museum of the American Indian, the School for Advanced Research, and the Institute of American Indian Arts. Participants consisted of international Indigenous scholars and artists.

34th Annual Meeting of the Midwest Art History Society

Indianapolis

Co-chaired panel on globalization and presented paper titled “Globalization and the Practices of Art History.”

Preserving our Pasts, Telling our Stories: Indians, Museums, and the Management of History

University of Oregon

Presented paper titled “Rethinking Dioramas: Considering the Production of Space in Tribal Museums.”

14th Native American Art Studies Association Conference

Scottsdale, Arizona

Organized panel titled “Museums, Nationalisms, and Representation.”

Contemporary Northwest Native, First Nations, and Alaskan Native Arts

College Art Association, Seattle

Co-chaired panel with Marie Watt on professional development issues for contemporary native artists.

13th Native American Art Studies Association Conference

Salem, Massachusetts

Respondent for panel titled “Indigenous Arts on a World Stage.”

Working from Community: American Indian Art and Literature in a Historical and Cultural Context

The Evergreen State College

Organizing committee and faculty for National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute.

Hit’emlkiliiksix “Within the Circle of the Rim”: Nations Gathering on Common Ground

Traveling exhibition featuring seventy-one artists from the Pacific Rim.

Indigenous Art and Heritage Conference

Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand/Aotearoa

Presented paper titled “Commodifying Native Objects/Legislating Native Identity: The Essential Native Artist as Producer.”

Toi Māori and Pataka Museum Festival

Wellington, New Zealand/Aotearoa

Lecturer and participant at various workshops and panels.

12th Native American Art Studies Association Conference

Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon

Chaired panel titled “The Image as Self: Strategies for Self-representation.”

Return to the Swing

The Evergreen State College

Assisted in the organization of an institute that brought together sixty-eight native artists from the Pacific Rim. I also co-curated an exhibition featuring the work of the participants.

College Art Association

Chicago

Co-chaired a panel with Jolene Rickard titled “The Native Artist as Critical Historian: Aesthetics, Histories, and Nationalisms in a Colonial World.”

Thirtieth International Congress of the History of Art

Comité International d’Histoire de l’Art, London

Presented paper titled “Testifying Bodies: Nationalisms, Aesthetics and Contemporary Native American Art.”

Native American/First Nations Studies Conference

Boise State University

Delivered essay titled “Nationalisms and Aesthetics: Globalization and Native American Art.”

Re-Imagining Multiculturalism

Monash University, Australia

Presented essay titled “The Native as Artist: Nationalism, History, and Aesthetics in a Colonial World.”

Getty Summer Institute

University of Rochester

Assisted in organization of institute on Art History and Visual Studies.

Getty Summer Institute

University of Rochester

Assisted in organization of institute on Visual and Cultural Studies.

33rd Annual UCLA Art History Graduate Student Symposium

Delivered essay titled “Mobile Borders — Stationary Bodies: Nationalism and Images of the American Native.”

College Art Association

Toronto

Presented paper titled “Why Warburg? Why Now? Troping Hybridity in/as Cultural Studies.”

Territorialism and Desire

Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam

Co-chaired workshop with Mieke Bal as part of “Culture-Sign-Space” semiotics conference. Presented paper “Writing the Space of the Subaltern: Testimonio and ‘Latin American’ Literature.”

Can ‘the Subaltern’ Be Read? The Role of the Critic in Postcolonial Studies

University of Frankfurt

Presented paper titled “From Subaltern to Organic Intellectual: Re-(e)valuating Rigoberta Menchú’s Testimonio.”

The Practice of Cultural Analysis

Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam

Presented paper titled “Re(al)locating Intention: Negotiating Other Translations in Art History.”

Mining the Field / Filling the Blanks

Visual and Cultural Studies, University of Rochester

Delivered paper titled “(Dis)Covering the Pre-Columbian Past.”

Borders and Cultures International Conference

McGill University

Moderator/respondent for “Borders and Film” panel.

Working Progress: The World of Art Residencies

Shin Minatomura, BankArt, Yokohama Triennial, Japan

Traumatic Nostalgia: Themes in Contemporary Indigenous Photography

Yamaguchi Institute for Contemporary Art, Yamaguchi, Japan

Accommodating the Other / The Relativity of Cultural Exchange

Chaired panel at TransCultural Exchange Conference, Boston, Massachusetts

Essential Aesthetics: Trauma, Nostalgia, and Indigenous Arts in the Pacific

Lecture at Humanities Center, University of Connecticut

Recuperating Nostalgia: Trauma and Self-Representation in Contemporary Indigenous Art Practices

Lecture at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

Self and Place: Native American Self-Representation

CUNY, Staten Island

Public lecture on Indigenous self-portraiture and landscape.

The 8th Japanese Artist-in-Residence Network Forum

Tokyo

Delivered keynote address titled “Networking beyond Networks: Art Residencies within a Global Cultural Economy.”

Alaska House, New York

Curator of Indigenous Art

In the Spirit: Northwest Arts Market & Festival

Washington State History Museum

Assisted in the programming and execution of Northwest Native American arts market.

James Luna, Fire, Movement, Water and Voices

34th Annual Meeting of the Midwest Art History Society, Indianapolis

Assisted in the programming of work by performance artist James Luna.

What Comes Naturally: Bruce Cook and Anna Hoover

Daybreak Star, Seattle

Curated exhibition of contemporary Indigenous art.

The Eternal Thread

The Museum at Warm Springs, Oregon

Assisted in the installation and opening of exhibition featuring Māori weaving.

Wood, Paper, Glass

Squaxin Island Museum, Shelton, Washington

Co-curated an exhibition of native art from Ford Foundation workshops by Susan Point, Melanie Yazzie, and Preston Singletary.

“Indigenous Cinema: Native Women and Filmmaking”

Santa Barbara Museum of Art

Organized film screening and panel discussion addressing issues relevant to native women filmmakers.

“The Native as Image: Art History as a Colonial Discourse”

University of California at Santa Barbara

Hit’emlkiliiksix “Within the Circle of the Rim”: Nations Gathering on Common Ground

Installed exhibition at City University of New York, New York City.

Colonial Visions

The Evergreen State College

Curated exhibition featuring installations by Karen K. Kosasa and Marie Watt.

“Appropriation and/as Postmodernism”

Lecture at the Whitireia Polytechnic, Porirua, New Zealand/Aotearoa

Hit’emlkiliiksix “Within the Circle of the Rim”: Nations Gathering on Common Ground

Co-curated traveling exhibition, with Ann McCormack, featuring seventy-one artists from the Pacific Rim, which toured venues across the U.S. and ended its tour in New Zealand/Aotearoa.

asta’bsHil3b axw ti qa’qtu: “The Return to the Swing”

The Evergreen State College

Curated exhibition of contemporary native art.

Trish Higgins Gallery, Wichita, Kansas

Participant in roundtable on the relevance of contemporary graffiti-based art.

“The Aesthetics of Globalization and Native American Art”

Lecture at The Evergreen State College

“Museum Practices and Native American Self-Representation”

Lecture at Arkansas State University

“Art History and the Native as Image”

Lecture at Wichita State University

“Contemporary Native American Art and Nationalism”

Lecture at Southwest Missouri State University

Indigenous Curatorial Collective

Board of Directors

Res Artis

Board of Directors; Honorary Board Member. A worldwide network of artist residencies.

First Light Alaska

Board of Directors. Non-profit promoting Alaska Native scholars and international Indigenous arts.

Longhouse Education and Cultural Center

Advisory Board

American Alliance of Museums

College Art Association

Native American Art Studies Association

Native American and Indigenous Studies Association