Kelly Tapia-Chuning

Origin: Cedar City, UT, USA
Birth Year: 1997

Kelly Tapia-Chuning's work forms as a response to her family’s histories of assimilation, questioning power dynamics attached to representation, racial identity, and language. In post-revolutionary Mexico, the serape became a visual embodiment of the “mestizo” identity, erasing Indigenous representation in the process. Dismantling the serapes has become a vehicle of honoring her ancestors, recentering the narrative around Indigeneity. Her process of making is ritualistic, creating a selfhood firmly situated in the land and stories of her ancestors—shedding light on the dichotomy of being "nepantla," born in-between spaces and cultures.

Home Is In The Purple Line Cradled By The Land, What's Above And Below (el hogar está en la línea violeta acuñada por la tierra, lo que está arriba y abajo), 2023

Dismantled serape (Mexican blanket), dried desert globemallow harvested in southern Utah during a super bloom, handmade vessel made with reclaimed copper from Utah, copper nails
79" × 50" × 9"

Blood of My Blood, Land of My Blood, Reborn (sangre de mi sangre, tierra de mi sangre, renacida), 2023
Dismantled serape (Mexican blanket), obsidian gathered by my family in Utah

What Was Lost, Found (lo que se perdió, se encontró), 2023
Dismantled serape (Mexican blanket), found coyote skull from Utah, copper nails
80" × 11" × 3"