Fawn Douglas

Las Vegas

Visual Arts: 3D
Folk and Traditional Arts
Visual Arts: 2D

Fawn Douglas is an Indigenous American artivist, mother, and enrolled member of the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe. She also has roots with the Moapa Paiute, Southern Cheyenne, Creek, Pawnee, and Scottish. Fawn is the head matriarch of Nuwu Art + Activism Studios and directs the Nuwu Art Gallery + Community Center located in the Historic Huntridge neighborhood in the heart of Las Vegas, Nevada. She is dedicated to the intersections of art, activism, community, education, culture, identity, place, and sovereignty. Within her art-making, she tells stories in order to remember the past and to ensure the stories of Indigenous peoples are heard in the present. Her studio practice includes painting, weaving, sculpture, dance, and other types of performance. Douglas currently does art and cultural consulting through Nuwu Art, works part-time with Meow Wolf, is a board member (secretary) of the nonprofit IndigenousAF, and is an art commissioner for the City of Las Vegas (Ward 3).

She is a protector who advocates for the rights of women, Indigenous self-determination, and environmental conservation.

In 2024, photographer Cara Romero invited Fawn Douglas to be part of the First American Doll Collection – a photographic series that consists of individuals from various Native American tribes who are set in a constructed doll box frame that alludes to the environment of the subject. Romero created these doll boxes to show Indigenous peoples and items that they have either crafted with their hands or objects that are considered identifiers of the subject’s people. Fawn represents a Southern Paiute doll and is adorned in traditional necklaces of her making. She created these necklaces from flat round abalone and white shells, sinew, leather and cedar beads. The artist wears these necklaces as her Southern Paiute ancestors would have worn them.

Traditional Paiute Necklaces for Cara Romero Shoot, mixed media: abalone, white shells, leather, sinew, thread, Various sizes: 18” x 1” / 24” x 1”, 2024

Weaving practices are inherent to the Nuwu or Southern Paiute people. They have been an art form of utilitarian purpose. Baskets bear patterns of various geometric designs that are symbolic of flora and fauna in the area of the Mojave Desert and Great Basin. My ancestors searched in their environment to gather the willow and other materials for weaving. Today, in my urban environment, I utilize these traditions in modern times. We have always been modern and creative with what is available in our environments. I created Nuwuvi Basket I through harvesting conduit wire from the construction of the Nuwu Art + Activism Studios. The act of weaving with the found material and also inserting willows felt good in my hands, for strength and permanence.

Nuwuvi Basket (I of IV), Mixed media, conduit wire, willow, 48” x 24” x 5”, 2022

The Message II, Petroglyphs of Red Rock Canyon, is a mixed media work on paper that reproduces imagery of historically significant petroglyphs that have lasted for centuries in Southern Nevada and the Great Basin region. The Message II draws from an individual art piece that Fawn completed in 2018, titled “The Message.” This original piece was a response to land protection efforts in Southern Paiute areas. The Message series serves as a tool or conduit through which others can learn about the Southern Paiute, Western Shoshone, and other Native Americans who have inhabited these areas for millenia. The Message II focuses on the petroglyphs located in Red Rock Canyon. “The works of my ancestors abstracted are a testament to our ways of learning from the past seven generations, to create something that will continue seven generations forward.” - Fawn Douglas

The Message II, Petroglyphs of Red Rock Canyon, mixed media: gouache, pencil, pastel, charcoal, 24” x 24”, 2024

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Fawn Douglas

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