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Angie Reano Owen

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Santa Domingo Pueblo, birthplace of Angie Reano Owen

Angelita "Angie" Reano Owen (born 1946) is a Kewa Pueblo jeweler and lapidary artist. Owen is known for her intricate and modern pieces that are inspired by prehistoric Anasazi and Hohokam inlay jewelry designs. She is recognized for helping to popularize this traditional craft after it had become largely unknown in the 1970s.

Biography

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Owen was born in 1946 to Joe Isidro and Clara Lovato Reano[1] in Santo Domingo Pueblo in New Mexico.[2] Her family was known for their heshi shell beads, and her mother was a Pueblo jewelry artist.[3] As one of Joe and Clara's eight children, she joined in the family's jewelry business making thunderbird necklaces for the tourist trade, after the boom in interest in Southwestern jewelry.[4][5] Owen and her brothers and sisters would sell the family's wares on the steps of the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe.[6][7]

Hohokam turquoise mosaics, an example of the Pre-Colombian art that inspires Owen's jewelry designs

In the 1970s, Owen became known for her mastery of ancient Anasazi and Hohokam inlay jewelry, a delicate technique which she is noted for reviving.[8] After a trip to Tucson, where she viewed pre-historic mosaic inlays, Owen began to develop her own take one the traditional artwork. She innovated a technique of combining shell and stone with a unique adhesive that is known only to the family.[9] Her mosaics use slices of stones and shell, such as turquoise, coral and Tiger cowrie, which are arranged in patterns or landscapes and inlaid with epoxy.[3][10] They are carefully placed, set, then sanded smooth.[11] By the 1980s, her designs became more elaborate, with mosaic designs adorning complex organic forms,[12] arranged in an "unconventional integration of various prehistoric and postmodern design elements".[13] Owen's designs are noted for their intricacy and multifaceted surfaces of inlaid shells, stones and natural materials.[14][15]

Owen is recognized for helping popularize this traditional Anasazi style of native American jewelry, which was not well known and had few artisans practicing the craft.[16][17][18] After developing her technique, she taught her family members to carry on the tradition, including her brother Joe, sister in law Angie P. Reano, and her children Rena, Dean and Donna.[3][19] Other members of the Reano Owen family have gone on to become talented inlay jewelry artisans in their own right.[5]

In 1995, she was named the Ronald and Susan Dubin Artist Fellow at the School for Advanced Research.[8]

Owen has won several Best of Division awards at the Santa Fe Indian Market and Heard Museum markets for her work.[20][21]

Exhibitions and Collections

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See also

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  • Glycymeris, a shell of a saltwater clam that Owen uses in her jewelry designs following the Hohokam tradition
  • Olivella white shells used in her designs
  • Spiny oyster, mollusk shell used in her designs

References

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  1. ^ "Angie Owen & Family". the shop of . the rainbow man . in old santa fe. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  2. ^ a b "Museum to host turquoise jewelry exhibition". nationaljeweler.com. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  3. ^ a b c d "Cuff bracelet". collections.mfa.org. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  4. ^ "Angie Reano Owen attributes this Depression-era necklace to her mother, Clara Reano. Made of turquoise chips, red and white plastic, and gypsum beads, it was found in its original box from Verkamp's Trading Post at the Grand Canyon. Collection Karen Sires. – El Palacio". Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  5. ^ a b Pardue, Diana F. (2007). Contemporary Southwestern Jewelry. Gibbs Smith. ISBN 978-1-4236-0190-6.
  6. ^ "Silversmith & Lapidary Biographies: Angie Reano Owen". www.bischoffsgallery.com. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  7. ^ "Santo Domingo Pueblo's Depression Jewelry – El Palacio". Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  8. ^ a b "Angie Reano Owen – Artists – Indian Arts Research Center". emuseum.sarsf.org. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  9. ^ "Joe Reano". The British Museum.
  10. ^ Greenbaum, Toni and Pat Kirkham. "Chapter 8. Women Jewelry Designers." Women Designers in the USA, 1900–2000: Diversity and Difference, edited by Pat Kirkham, Bard Graduate Center and Yale University Press, 2002. A&AePortal, aaeportal.com/?id=-20279.
  11. ^ Pardur, Diana (2010-07-16). "Portfolio | Native American Innovators". Southwest Art Magazine. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  12. ^ a b "Mosaic cuff bracelet". collections.mfa.org. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  13. ^ Baxter, Paula. "Cross-cultural controversies in the design history of Southwestern American Indian jewellery." Journal of Design History 7.4 (1994): 233-245.
  14. ^ Gänsicke, Susanne; Markowitz, Yvonne J. (2019-06-25). Looking at Jewelry: A Guide to Terms, Styles, and Techniques. Getty Publications. ISBN 978-1-60606-599-0.
  15. ^ Lowry, Joe Dan (2010-10-01). Turquoise. Gibbs Smith. ISBN 978-1-4236-1980-2.
  16. ^ "1995 Native Artist Fellows | School for Advanced Research". Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  17. ^ Pardue, D. F. (1997). The Cutting Edge: Contemporary Southwestern Jewelry and Metalwork. Heard Museum.
  18. ^ Baxter, Paula A.; Bird-Romero, Allison (2000). Encyclopedia of Native American jewelry : a guide to history, people, and terms. Internet Archive. Phoenix : Oryx Press. ISBN 978-1-57356-128-0.
  19. ^ "Joe Reano Related Objects". The British Museum.
  20. ^ Roberts, Kathaleen (2021-08-14). "Kewa artist Angie Owen uses techniques of her ancestors to craft award-winning jewelry". Albuquerque Journal. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  21. ^ "Angie Owen – Santa Fe Indian Market". Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  22. ^ "Bracelet". emuseum.sarsf.org. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  23. ^ ""Chiclet" necklace". collections.mfa.org. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  24. ^ "Old-style tab necklace". collections.mfa.org. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  25. ^ "Bracelet". collections.mfa.org. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  26. ^ "Results – Advanced Search Objects – Museum of Fine Arts, Boston". collections.mfa.org. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  27. ^ "Department of Cultural Affairs Media Center :: Media Bank :: Turquoise, Water, Sky: The Stone and Its Meaning :: Contemporary Artistic Expressions". media.newmexicoculture.org. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  28. ^ "Earrings | National Museum of the American Indian". americanindian.si.edu. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  29. ^ "Water, Wind, Breath: Southwest Native Art in Community The Barnes Foundation". Barnes Foundation. February 20 – May 15, 2022. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  30. ^ "Bracelet". art.nelson-atkins.org. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  31. ^ "Get a Bead On: Jewelry and Small Objects". Racine Art Museum. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  32. ^ Totems to Turquoise Native North American Jewelry Arts of the Northwest and Southwesthttps://www.amnh.org/content/download/58463/944383/file/totems_main.pdf www.amnh.org/resources/exhibitions/totems
  33. ^ "RAM Showcase: Focus on Adornment". Racine Art Museum. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
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