Artist Talk in the Studio: Melanie Yazzie

Visiting artist Melanie Yazzie will use laser-cut woodblocks based on historic regional maps to consider relationships with land over time, especially during periods of profound change and displacement for Indigenous people. She’ll then intervene with the woodblock prints by adding layers of color and form via monotype. Visitors are invited to speak with Yazzie about the work in-process and to consider how printmaking can connect artistic practice in the present to events in the past.

Melanie Yazzie is Professor of Art Practices and Head of Printmaking at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her works belong to many collections such as: the Denver Art Museum, Anchorage Museum of History & Art, the Art Museum of Missoula, the Institute of American Indian Arts, the Kennedy Museum of Art, and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum. She has exhibited nationally and internationally in countries such as New Zealand, France, Russia, Canada, Estonia, Northern Ireland, Korea, China, United Kingdom, and Australia. She is known for organizing print exchange projects that connect communities across the world. She makes prints, sculptures, and paintings, and does surface and jewelry design. She has been represented by the Glenn Green Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico since 1994.

This event is free and open to the public.

The 2026 Smith College Print Workshop with Melanie Yazzie runs from Thursday, October 22 through Saturday, October 24, 2026.
Open Studio Hours: 10 a.m.-12 p.m. and 1-4 p.m.