NEHMA | Collection

Sandra Victorino

Native American, b. 1958

Teacup
Date unknown

Earthenware
2.25 x 3.5 x 2.5 in.
Gift of the Nora Eccles Treadwell Foundation
1984.109

Sandra Victorino’s Teacup is a delightful mingling of traditional Acoma Pueblo materials and decorative motifs that converges with a traditional European ceramic form. Victorino’s work is thin-walled, emphasizing the delicate design, with a ruffled lip along the cup’s rim. All of the elements of the Acoma ceramics tradition are present here. Victorino has coil-built the cup and used the beeweed plant to create a striking black design against the white clay, applying red slip to create the black-on-red coloration. The contrast between traditional Native materials and methods and what is ultimately a vessel form of the European colonizers is a vivid metaphor for the experiences of many contemporary Native Americans as they navigate their cultural survival under the harsh reality of colonialism.

Sandra Victorino began working with clay at the age of ten under the tutelage of her mother and her aunt, the noted potter Dorothy Torivio. Sandra’s work has received numerous awards from the Santa Fe Indian Market.

Matthew Limb

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