SEATTLE, WA.- My Body is a Basket brings together works by Brenda Mallory (Cherokee, born 1955), Danielle Morsette (Suquamish, Shxwhá:y Village, born 1987), and Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos, born 1976), three contemporary Indigenous women artists working in Washington and Oregon whose practices are rooted in innovation, materiality, and abstraction. Weaving—in unexpected materials and scales, and as a metaphor—connects their diverse approaches, whether in the tight weft of a wool blanket or stapled found fibers. Conceived by Frye Director and Curator of Collections Faith Brower and Guest Curator Asia Tail and presented alongside the nationally touring survey An Indigenous Present, the exhibition connects the broader conversation around Indigenous modern and contemporary art to the Pacific Northwest.

In addition to mixed-media paintings, sculptural works, and textiles by the participating artists, the exhibition features a large-format abstract weaving by Danielle Morsette, newly commissioned by the Frye for this exhibition. Although Morsette has recently received several notable commissions such as the 2025 Salish Sea Kit for the Seattle Sounders FC and the twenty-foot tapestry Ancestral Reflection: The Spirit Within (2024) for the Seattle Convention Center, this is the first art museum presentation of her two-dimensional weavings.

My Body is a Basket explores how the conceptual, and at times literal, connection of these Northwest artists’ works to weaving and basketry practices manifests in abstraction. Often museums present Indigenous weavings and baskets as a cultural practice, emphasizing ancient and historical techniques, mentors, community, sovereignty, and environmental connections to the land. While these are important interpretations, few exhibitions have taken a wider lens to foreground the ways these practices inform contemporary art more broadly.

Co-curators Faith Brower and Asia Tail explain, "We’re thrilled to present recent work by Mallory, Morsette, and Siestreem at the Frye for the first time. Each of these artists—representing a range of generational perspectives—reinterpret ancestral teachings through inventive artworks. These bold and abstract pieces speak to the enduring potency of the woven basket and show the strength of artists working in the region today."

Tail’s original poetic texts will be incorporated into the exhibition, with an excerpt shared here:

...Our hands remember what we forgot. Patterns repeated, that same twist of fingers, until small things become something so large we can’t see it all. Something that could go on forever. We’ve watched worlds end before, and started again, again...

Brenda Mallory’s mixed-media sculptural works comprise a variety of materials including cloth, fibers, beeswax, and found objects. By creating multiple forms joined with crude hardware that imply tenuous connections or repairs, her work addresses ideas of interference and disruption in long-established systems of nature and human cultures. She is a recipient of the Hallie Ford Fellowship, the Eiteljorg Contemporary Native Art Fellowship, the Native Arts and Culture Foundation Fellowship in Visual Art, and the Ucross Native Fellowship. She has received grants from the Oregon Arts Commission, Ford Family Foundation, and the Regional Arts & Culture Council. Mallory lives in Portland, Oregon, but grew up in Oklahoma and is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.

Danielle Morsette is a Suquamish tribal member with ancestral ties to the land where the Frye Art Museum now stands. Morsette is an expert weaver, who for nearly fifteen years has crafted wool textiles and wearable regalia, as well as works in other media. Through her practice, she explores and celebrates the legacy of her ancestors. She is the first wool weaver in her family in generations and hopes to grow representation for Coast Salish weavers in Seattle, sharing where she comes from and how this ancient art form is thriving today. Her work has been collected privately and publicly, including by the Seattle Convention Center, the Seattle Art Museum, Clearwater Casino, and the Burke Museum.

Sara Siestreem is a Hannis Coos multidisciplinary artist from the Umpqua River Valley on the South Coast of Oregon working in painting, photography, printmaking, weaving, and large-scale installation. Siestreem combines the ceremonial customs of her ancestors with contemporary artistic approaches and materials to engage the overlapping concerns of social and ecological justice, education, and Indigenous feminism. Siestreem was awarded the University of Oregon’s 2022–23 CFAR Fellowship and the 2022 Forge Project Fellowship. Her artwork was recently included in the landmark 2023 book An Indigenous Present, conceived and edited by Jeffrey Gibson. Her work is in museum collections, including the Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn, NY), Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (Berkeley, CA), Gochman Family Foundation (Miami, FL), Forge Project (Mahicannituck Valley, NY), Missoula Art Museum (Missoula, MT), Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA), and the Portland Art Museum (Portland, OR). She lives and works in Portland, Oregon.

Asia Tail is an artist and community organizer based in Seattle. Tail received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from New York’s Cooper Union School of Art. Her studio practice includes painting, collage, beadwork, and other media. Tail is the executive director of yəhaẃ Indigenous Creatives Collective, an intertribal arts nonprofit rematriating 1.5 acres of land in South Seattle. She also works as a freelance consultant with cross-sector organizations to channel resources into Indigenous communities. She was the recipient of the first Vadon Foundation Native Artist Fellowship in 2019 and was named one of Seattle’s Most Influential People by Seattle Magazine the same year. In 2022, she was selected to serve on the City of Seattle’s inaugural Indigenous Advisory Council. In 2023, she participated in Harvard Business School’s Young American Leaders Program. She is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, born and raised on Coast Salish territories.

My Body is a Basket is organized by Faith Brower, Director and Curator of Collections, and Asia Tail, Independent Curator.