Born into a family of potters from the Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico, that boasts such artists as Serafina Tafoya and Margaret Tafoya, Tammy Garcia (b. 1969) is one of the most recognizable figures in Southwestern ceramics. In the past decade she has revolutionized traditional Pueblo pottery and folded it into mainstream contemporary art. She is renowned for infusing a two-thousand year old tradition with modern notions of design and form in her elaborately sculpted pots, often large scale, etched with her signature all-over carvings. Her intricate design work, bold exploration of alternate visual sources, and experimental shapes have driven the art of pottery into the twenty-first century and set her apart from her contemporaries.

Beyond Tradition features a select group of Garcia’s most important pots and will be the first exhibition of her work at The National Museum of Women in the Arts. The show will be on view in the museum’s Ground Floor Gallery from August 22, 2008–February 3, 2009.