Yazzie Johnson & Gail Bird: New Work: Summer 2026

13 August - 18 September 2026

“The jewelry they produce is distinct from the work of other American Indian jewelers. Their pieces are frequently dramatic and always wearable. By seeking out stones of unusual color and surface pattern or pearls of various shapes and hues, then juxtaposing them in original compositions, they have created a unique style. … Gail and Yazzie have developed a body of work that is both distinctly their own and continuously evolving.”
–Martha Struever
The stones in a Yazzie Johnson and Gail Bird piece are never the usual ones — poppy jasper, drusy agate, a freshwater petal pearl. After more than fifty years of collaboration, they are still finding new ones and still expanding the unique visual vocabulary that has made them among the most acclaimed jewelers working today.
Of Navajo and Pueblo origin, respectively, Johnson and Bird were childhood friends and have been making jewelry together for some five decades. Their work is a mélange of influences past and present, the product of an internal genius powerfully shaped by innumerable visits to prehistoric Southwestern petroglyph and pictograph sites. By their beautiful command of form, unique invocation of the past, use of unconventional stones, and general unorthodoxy, Bird and Johnson have firmly established themselves within the contemporary canon while retaining an important place in Native art.
- Yazzie Johnson and Gail Bird
  Pendant, d. 2026
  2 5/8 x 3/4 inches
Yazzie Johnson & Gail Bird: New Work will be on view at The Owings Gallery on Marcy Street from August 13 to September 18, 2026, with an opening reception Thursday, August 13, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

The Marcy gallery is open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For inquiries call (505) 982-6244 or email info@owingsgallery.com.

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