Exhibitions (Selected)
2024
2024-25
2022-25
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
Where Sky Touches Water, Oxy Arts, Los Angeles, CA (solo show)
Nature on Notice: Contemporary Art and Ecology, LACMA, Los Angeles, CA
Unseen California: Language Has No Weather, Probably Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Noon to Midnight: Public Programming, LA Philharmonic, Los Angeles, CA
From the Ground Up: Nurturing Diversity in Hostile Environments, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA
Brackish Water Los Angeles, CSU Dominguez Hills, Dominguez Hills, CA
Mapping the Infinite: Cosmologies Across Cultures, LACMA, Los Angeles, CA
We Place Life at the Center / Situamos La Vida en El Centro, Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College, Los Angeles, CA
Future Imaginaries: Indigenous Art, Fashion, and Technology, Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles, CA
Before You Now: Capturing the Self in Portraiture, CSUN, Riverside Art Museum, (Traveling Southern California)
Borderlands, The Huntington Library and Museum, Los Angeles, CA
The Iridescence of Knowing, Oxy Arts, Los Angeles, CA (co-curated)
UNSETTLE/Converge, Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, IN
In Our Hands: Native Photography, 1890 to Now, Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN
Field Notes, Penumbra, New York, NY
Woshaa’axre Yaang’aro (Looking Back), Getty Center, Los Angeles, CA (solo)
Kinship, SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA
Indigenous Contemporary Photography, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Forth Worth, TX
Here After, Bridge Projects LA, Los Angeles, CA
Family Album: Contemporary Works from LACMA, Charles White Elementary School Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
I Hear America Singing: Contemporary Photography from America, US Embassy Jordan, Pizzuti Collection, OH
Biddy’s Garden, Transformative Arts, Los Angeles, CA
The Map and the Territory, Fowler Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Portal for Tovaangar, LACMAxSnap, LACMA, Los Angeles, CA
Photo Flux: Unshuttered Los Angeles, Getty Center, Los Angeles, CA
All Words Have Roots Here, Art Space Gallery, Fresno, CA
The Shape of Life, Wonzimer Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Landscape: Awe to Activism, Museum of Sonoma County, Sonoma, CA
When I Remember I See Red, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, IAIA, Santa Fe, NM, The Autry, LA, CA
What is Feminist Art?, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
The Autograph Book of L.A.: Improvements on the Page of the City, LA Library, Los Angeles, CA
Tovaangar, Interactive Installation, Autry Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Unravelling Collective Forms, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA
The Land Upon Which you Stand, A Noise Within, Pasadena CA (Solo Show)
Erasure: Native American Genocide: A Legacy, ReflectSpace, Glendale, CA
Contemporary Traces on Ancient Land, Triton Museum, San Jose, CA
The Body is the Map: Approaches to Land in the Americas After 1960, Allen Memorial Art Museum, OH
Out of Tradition Sacred and Profane, deSaisset, San Jose CA
Matriarchs, El Segundo Museum of Art, El Segundo, CA
La Reina de Los Angeles, Descanso Gardens, Los Angeles, CA
Plain Sight, Residency Gallery, Inglewood CA
Made in LA, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Westward, SFAC San Francisco City Hall, San Francisco, CA
Home, PhotoAlliance.org, San Francisco, CA
People of the Earth: Life and Culture of the Tongva, Santa Monica History Museum, Santa Monica, CA 2017
Spotlights, Feria Barco, Bogota, Colombia
Earth Body, Oobleck, San Francisco, CA
When I Remember I See Red - California Native American Contemporary Art, Fine Arts Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Interwoven Indigenous Contemporary, Thatcher Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Altar Apparitions, Handwerker Gallery, Ithaca, NY (two person show)
Locating Self, Block Gallery, Oakland CA
Attunement, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA
New Works #16 Exhibition, Enfoco: Longwood Gallery, Bronx, NY
In the Beginning was Fox and Cinnamon, Galeri¬a de la Raza, San Francisco, CA (solo show)
re:Told, Root Division Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Sinews, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum, Berkeley, CA (solo show)
Sustaining the Circle of Knowledge, California Indian Conference, Chico, CA
Origin Stories, Smokey’s Tangle, Oakland, CA (solo show)
Human Artifact, Vermont Photo Space, Essex Junction, VT
Vernissage, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA
Lopped off: Women Drawing Penises from Memory, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Nice Try Sweetheart: A Shit Show, Swell Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Last of the Mojitos, Queens Nails Projects, San Francisco, CA
Born Into This, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA
It’s Still Life, Rayko Photo Center, San Francisco, CA
Human Studies, Swell Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Gathering, Indigenous Arts Coalition, San Francisco, CA
First First Show, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Dig, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Artist Showcase, DUUP, Havana, Cuba
Photo+Book, 23 Sandy Gallery, Portland, OR
Reburial, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo show)
Emerging (I) 3, Traveling Exhibition, Gallery at the Creative Center for Photography, Los Angeles, CA
Once Occupied - Alcatraz, Still Lights Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo show)
Post, Swell Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Collections
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Forth Worth, TX
De Saisset Museum, Santa Clara, CA
The Escalette Permanent Art Collection, Orange, CA
The Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
The Huntington Library and Museum, Los Angeles, CA
The Kadist Collection, San Francisco, CA
LACMA, Los Angeles, CA
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
Montblanc Art Commission, Hamburg, DE
Phoebe A Hearst Museum, Berkeley, CA
SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA
Tartine California Artist Collection, Los Angeles, CA
Triton Museum, San Jose, CA
Awards (Selected)
2024
2023
2020
2018
2017
2012
2011
2010
2009
California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Arts
UCR Tribal Community Scholar in Residence
Eijteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship
Wanlass Artist in Residence Fellowship
Creative Capital Award
Museum of Contemporary Native Art, Residency, Workshop and Artist Lecture
Artist Commission Program for the Montblanc Art Collection
Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant
Artist in Residence, Santa Fe Art Institute
James Phelan Award for California Born Visual Artist
En Foco’s New Works Photography Fellowship Awards #16
Gallería de la Raza GINNA Grant
Harpo Foundation Fellowship for VSC Residency
John Collier Award, San Francisco Art Institute
Paul Sack Award
Best in Show, 23 Sandy Gallery, Portland Oregon
MFA Full Fellowship, San Francisco Art Institute
Lectures & Panels
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2015
2012
2011
‘Mercedes Dorame: Where Sky Touches Water’ Artist Talk, Oxy Arts
Mercedes Dorame on Creation and Collaboration, Getty Museum
UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture Commencement Speech
The Careful Image Podcast, Artist Lecture, Pomona College
Race, Activism and Photography, Center for Photography at Woodstock
Artist Lecture, Scripps College
UCLA American Indian Studies Center Artist Lecture
Artist Lecture, Santa Fe Art Institute
UCLA ECCLIPS conference, Los Angeles, CA
Brokering the Sacred, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
In Conversation: Westward Artist Panel, San Francisco Arts Commission, San Francisco, CA
Artist Lecture, East Los Angeles College, Los Angeles, CA
Artist Lecture, CalArts, Valencia, CA
The Daily Dose: On Water, with Debra Scacco, Carolina Caycedo, The Underground Museum, Los Angeles, CA
You Are on Tongva Land, with Wendy Teeter and Angela R. Riley, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Indigenous Art Recentering the World, with Jolene Rickard, Paul Chaat Smith, Wanda Nanibush, NAISA Conference Panel
Artist Lecture, Handwerker Gallery, Ithaca, NY
Artist Lecture, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum, Berkeley, CA
PhotoAlliance Lecture Series, San Francisco, CA
California Indian Art: Beauty and Inspiration, Panelist, Chico, CA
Guest Lecturer for Post Photo: Hybrid Practices, San Francisco Art Institute
Bibliography
”How artist Mercedes Dorame shares pieces of her Tongva heritage across L.A.’s public landscapes”, Los Angeles Times, Carolina A. Miranda, July 2022
”Bringing Ocean to Land”, Getty Magazine, Erin Migdol, June 2023
“Mercedes Dorame: ‘Borders shift and change with perspective’”, The Art Newspaper, Gabriella Angeleti, Feb. 2024
“On Top of the World - Mercedes Dorame Reverses Power Structures With Spirituality”, Artillery Magazine, Bianca Collins, Sept. 2023
“Diving In”, UCLA Magazine, Madline Adamo, April 2024
“When I Remember I See Red: American Indian Art and Activism in California”, First American Art Magazine, Melissa Melero-Moose, Spring 2020
“They Made Their Mark: The Autograph Book of L.A.”, LA Weekly, Shana Nys Dambrot, Oct. 2019
“Critic’s Picks - Unravelling Collective Forms, Artforum, Yxta Maya Murray, May 2019
“Developing a Collective Language of Resistance Across the Centuries”, Hyperallergic, Lorissa Rinehart, May 2019
“Made in LA at the Hammer Museum”, Terremoto.mx, Carribean Fragoza, August 2018
“Three Knockout Art Shows to See in Los Angeles Right Now”, New York Times, Holland Cotter, August 2018
“Made in LA 2018”, Art Agenda, Jonathan Griffin, July 2018
“These 20 Artists are Pushing Sculpture Forward”, Artsy.net, Tess Thackara, July 2018
“Signs of the Apocalypse at the Hammer Museum”, New York Times, Jori Finkel, June 2018
“Resolutely Political LA Artists Focus on the Body”, Hyperallergic, Matt Stromberg, June 2018
“In Their Versions of the West, the Landscapes Are Never Empty”, KQED, Matthew Harrison Tedford, June 2018
“The Fourth World at Institute of Art and Olfaction”, Shana Nys Dambrot, Oct. 2017
“Artist Highlights Native History and Stereotypes With Family Photos”, Indian Country Today, Leanne Root, Jan. 2017
“We, as a People, Still Exist”, PBS Newshour, Corinne Segal, Jan. 7, 2017
“Photos of Sacred Sites Call Attention to Erased Native American Histories”, KCET Artbound, Sarah Linn, Nov. 2016
“The Complications of Cultural Monitoring”, News from Native California, Mercedes Dorame, Fall 2016
“These Native American Artists Want You to Know They Are ‘Still Here’”, KCET Artbound, Sarah Linn, Oct. 2016
“Handwerker exhibits offer two sisters’ origin stories”, The Ithacan, Celisa Calacal, Feb. 2015
“Looking Back”, CultureStrike, Michelle Chen, August 2013
“Intercambio”, En Foco, Vol. 17, Natasha Egan, Curator for MOCP Chicago, Nov. 2013
Education
MFA San Francisco Art Institute
BA University of California, Los Angeles
Faculty at California Institute of the Arts, 2019 - Present