The 100th SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market on the Plaza takes place Saturday, August 20, and Sunday, August 21, with artists often loading in before dawn. Get to know some who have been standouts over the years.
AYDRIAN DAY (ANISHINAABE, LAKOTA, HOCHUNK)
At age 12, preteen phenom Aydrian Day may be the Indian art world’s fastest-rising star. He’s won the Santa Fe Indian Market Youth Award twice and the People’s Choice Award online in 2020, along with honors at the Heard Museum. “I mainly do beadwork. I like to back it with hide — elk hide, moose hide, deer hide. The two times I won at Santa Fe were for purses, but I make other things, too,” says Day, who lives in Peshawbestown, Michigan, on the Grand Traverse Band reservation, and is already choosing future art schools.
He learned to do beadwork from watching his mom, Alexa Rae Day, who serves as something of a momager, in the best possible sense. “I was the one bugging her. It’s not the other way around,” he says. “I don’t have. No one believes that I’m 12 or that I started beading when I was 3.”
