Linda Lomahaftewa, Year of the Serpent

Featured in Nelimarkka Museum’s show “Native American art today” in Finland, on exhibit from September 13, 2025 to January 2, 2026.

Year of the Serpent reflects the artist’s blending of Indigenous cosmologies and abstraction. The central serpent-like form recalls the Horned Serpent, a powerful spiritual being found in both Southeastern Mississippian traditions connected to her Choctaw heritage and in Southwestern Indigenous belief systems. Pulsating bands of yellow, green, and red reference Hopi associations between color, sacred directions, and spiritual knowledge, while the flowing composition transforms the landscape into something alive and in motion. Lomahaftewa often described her abstract imagery as visualizing the movement of songs, prayers, and the natural world.