Identity: 4 Voices – Virtual Exhibition

During the closure of the Craft in America Center, we invite you to explore our virtual exhibition, browse the digital catalog, and look through the image gallery below, as well as enjoy our related video content.

For questions and more information about this exhibition or to set-up a virtual walkthrough, please contact us at center@craftinamerica.org

Virtual Exhibition:


Craft in America Center is pleased to present an exhibition by four artists who explore issues of gender, race, culture, and place, offering true expressions of their experience in this world.

Cristina Córdova, Wendy Maruyama, Cara Romero, and Diego Romero draw upon their heritages and identities as makers to translate their experiences into fine art. All four artists were featured in Craft in America’s most recent episode of our PBS Documentary Series, IDENTITY.

Cristina Córdova is a sculptor who is originally from Puerto Rico and now  lives and works at Penland, NC. Her beautiful figurative clay work is rooted in renaissance sculptural traditions and ceramic history. Each piece represents our shared humanity while confronting contemporary issues of gender, race, beauty, and power.

Wendy Maruyama, furniture maker and educator, delves into matters of ethnicity, gender, and world issues in her studio in San Diego, CA.  Born an American of Japanese heritage, Maruyama satisfied her artistic passions by becoming an important furniture maker in a field dominated by men and in the process, overcame challenges related to her deafness and disability. Maruyama is able to translate her complex identity into beautiful yet challenging work.

Cara Romero, a contemporary photographer and member of the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe of the Chemehuevi Reservation (a branch of the Southern Paiute) of the Mojave Desert, CA is a passionate spokesperson for indigenous cultural and environmental issues. Her complex and nuanced images combine traditional iconography with a contemporary perspective, bringing past, present, and future into consideration. The artist orchestrates a balancing act in her photography by rewriting stories of Indian identity, battling cultural misappropriation, and confronting stereotypes–particularly of Native women–all the while preserving tradition and maintaining cultural sensitivity.

Diego Romero is a potter living and working in Santa Fe, NM and a member of the Cochiti Pueblo tribe. He makes art that transcends his Native American heritage by combining traditional materials, techniques, and forms of ancient Mimbres, Anasazi, and Greek pottery with comic book inspired imagery to talk about contemporary issues. Romero is a self-proclaimed “chronologist on the absurdity of human nature,” whose comic narratives often venture into taboo areas of politics, environment, racism, alcoholism, love, life, and loss.

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Digital Catalog:

Printed copies of this catalog are available on Blurb for $15.

Image Gallery:

Wendy Maruyama

Wendy Maruyama, EO Zenmetsu, 2011
Wendy Maruyama, EO Zenmetsu, 2011, tamo ash, paper, glass, porcelain shards.
Wendy Maruyama, EO Zenmetsu, 2011 (detail), IDENTITY, Craft in America
Wendy Maruyama, EO Zenmetsu (detail), 2011, tamo ash, paper, glass, porcelain shards.
Wendy Maruyama, Sonje, 2014, IDENTITY, Craft in America
Wendy Maruyama, Sonje, 2014, polychromed wood, string
Wendy Maruyama, Sonje, 2014 (detail), IDENTITY, Craft in America
Wendy Maruyama, Sonje (detail), 2014, polychromed wood, string
Wendy Maruyama, Sonje, 2014 (detail), IDENTITY, Craft in America
Wendy Maruyama, Sonje (detail), 2014, polychromed wood, string
Wendy Maruyama, The Bell Shrine, IDENTITY, Craft in America
Wendy Maruyama, The Bell Shrine, 2015, claro walnut, holly, ink, bronze, Image courtesy of the artist
Wendy Maruyama, The Bell Shrine, IDENTITY, Craft in America
Wendy Maruyama, The Bell Shrine (detail), 2015 claro walnut, holly, ink, bronze
Wendy Maruyama, untitled, 2019, IDENTITY, Craft in America
Wendy Maruyama, Untitled, 2019, polychromed wood
Installation view of Wendy Maruyama's "The Color Field" series, IDENTITY, Craft in America
Installation view of Wendy Maruyama’s “The Color Field” series
Wendy Maruyama, Yellow Window, 2019, IDENTITY, Craft in America
Wendy Maruyama, Yellow Window, 2019, polychromed wood
Wendy Maruyama, Autumnal Equinox, 2019, IDENTITY, Craft in America
Wendy Maruyama, Autumnal Equinox, 2019, polychromed wood
Wendy Maruyama, Tickled Pink, 2019, IDENTITY, Craft in America
Wendy Maruyama, Tickled Pink, 2019, polychromed wood
Wendy Maruyama, Homage to Anni II, 2019, IDENTITY, Craft in America
Wendy Maruyama, Homage to Anni II, 2019, polychromed wood
Wendy Maruyama, Tickled Pink, 2019 (detail), IDENTITY, Craft in America
Wendy Maruyama, Tickled Pink (detail), 2019, polychromed wood

Cara Romero

Cara Romero, 17 Mile Road, 2019, Archival pigment prints, Legacy platine
Cara Romero, 17 Mile Road, 2019, Archival pigment prints, Legacy platine
Cara Romero, Spirits of Siwavaats, 2019, Archival pigment prints, Legacy platine
Cara Romero, Spirits of Siwavaats, 2019, Archival pigment prints, Legacy platine
Cara Romero, Evolvers, 2019, Archival pigment prints, Legacy platine
Cara Romero, Evolvers, 2019, Archival pigment prints, Legacy platine
Installation view of Cara Romero's Work, Craft in America
Installation view of Cara Romero’s Work

Cristina Córdova

Cristina Córdova, Cabeza V, 2018
Cristina Córdova, Cabeza V, 2018, ceramic, framed photography
Cristina Córdova, Cabeza V, 2018
Cristina Córdova, Cabeza V, 2018, ceramic, framed photography
Cristina Córdova, Cabeza V, 2018
Cristina Córdova, Cabeza V, 2018 (detail), ceramic, framed photography

Diego Romero

Diego Romero, Untitled, c. 2019, glazed earthenware, IDENTITY, Craft in America
Diego Romero, Untitled, c. 2019, glazed earthenware
Diego Romero, Chongo Brothers in Broke Car Landscape, c. 2019, glazed and gilded earthenware, IDENTITY, Craft in America
Diego Romero, Chongo Brothers in Broke Car Landscape, c. 2019, glazed and gilded earthenware
Diego Romero, Chongo Brothers in Broke Car Landscape (detail), c. 2019, glazed and gilded earthenware, IDENTITY, Craft in America
Diego Romero, Chongo Brothers in Broke Car Landscape (detail), c. 2019, glazed and gilded earthenware
Diego Romero, Cochiti Polychrome Bowl, Cochiti Maiden, IDENTITY, Craft in America
Diego Romero, Cochiti Polychrome Bowl, Cochiti Maiden, c. 2019, glazed earthenware, courtesy of Shiprock Santa Fe
Diego Romero, Cochiti Coyote Pottery Bowl, IDENTITY, Craft in America
Diego Romero, Cochiti Coyote, c. 2019, glazed and gilded earthenware, courtesy of Shiprock Santa Fe