Steven J. Yazzie (Navajo/Laguna Pueblo) is a multidisciplinary artist working in video, painting and installation. He is a member of the Navajo Nation and a veteran of the Gulf War, serving honorably with the U.S. Marine Corps. He received a BFA in intermedia at Arizona State University and was named the 2014 Outstanding Graduate of ASU’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. He also studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. Yazzie is the co-founder of Digital Preserve LLC, a video production company collaborating with artists, filmmakers and interdisciplinary creatives to produce meaningful content and stories that highlight Indigenous issues. Yazzie’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at such venues as the Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, the Heard Museum, the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Art and the Wheelwright Museum.

About Laughter and Resilience:
This event is part of ongoing programming for the Eiteljorg’s new exhibition Laughter and Resilience: Humor in Native American Art. This fascinating exhibition curated by the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe, N.M. examines Indigenous humor in all its forms. Laughter and Resilience will inspire an appreciation and better understanding of Native Art through the concept of how humor, telling jokes, and being light-hearted (especially during times that require or have required acts of resiliency), is central to many Native American groups. Learn more.