Marie Watt is an American artist and citizen of the Seneca Nation residing and making in Portland, Oregon. Her work draws from history, biography, protofeminism and Indigenous teachings. She explores the intersection of history, community and storytelling, and addresses how multi-generational and cross-disciplinary conversations create a lens for understanding connectedness to place, one another, and the universe.

Her process is solitary and collaborative. Small works are personal meditations. Larger works are made in community, notably in “sewing circles,” public events by which anyone may participate. The fellowship and storytelling around the work table is as important as the object that grows out of it.

Ms. Watt holds an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University, attended Willamette University and the Institute of American Indian Arts, and in 2016 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Willamette University. Among other residencies, she has attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture; and received fellowships from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the Anonymous Was a Woman Foundation and the Hallie Ford Family Foundation.

Selected collections include the Albright Knox Museum, Seattle Art Museum, National Gallery of Canada, Smithsonian institution’s National Museum of the American Indian and Renwick Gallery, Tacoma Art Museum, Fabric Workshop + Museum,  Seattle Art Museum, Denver Art Museum, Portland Art Museum, and United States Library of Congress. She serves on the board for VoCA (Voices of Contemporary Art).

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Marie has been a resident of Sitka in 2021, 2019, 2014 and 2002

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