Brooklyn-based painter Grace Rosario Perkins is bringing Indigenous abstraction into bold new territory. The Diné (Navajo) and Akimel O’odham artist has been named the second 2025 recipient of the Walker Youngbird Foundation’s Emerging Native Arts Grant, an award that comes with $15,000 over six months, mentorship from cultural leaders, and access to a national network of curators and gallerists.
Perkins—self-taught and raised between Santa Fe, her parents’ reservations, and the Bay Area—creates layered abstractions from text, found materials, and ritual. Her work resists simple narratives, instead inviting audiences to connect through complexity.
“This grant gives me the freedom to focus on a large-scale sculptural work grounded in collaboration with friends and family members across different homelands,” Perkins said. “We are transforming materials that hold both personal and collective stories, and through abstraction, we invite viewers to form their own connections.”
The funded project, Circles, Spokes, Zigzags, Rivers, will include large-scale paintings and a monumental sculpture collaboratively built near the Navajo Nation and Gila River Indian Community. The installation will incorporate found detritus—beer cans, aluminum, and fast-food packaging—collected from areas impacted by addiction and environmental harm, cast in concrete and embedded with medicinal plants.
Reid Walker, founder of the Walker Youngbird Foundation, calls Perkins’ work “a mix of memory, ritual, and refusal you don’t come across often,” noting that her vision “builds a language of its own.”
The project will also include workshops for Indigenous and LGBTQ+ youth, fostering storytelling and creative exploration.
Perkins’ work has been exhibited across the U.S., with solo shows at MOCA Tucson (The Relevance of Your Data, 2022), Bockley Gallery in Minneapolis (2024), and de boer in Los Angeles (2023), as well as group shows at SFMOMA, Andrew Kreps Gallery, and Company Gallery in NYC.
The Walker Youngbird Foundation’s Emerging Native Arts Grant supports rising Native artists with funding, visibility, and mentorship. More information is available at www.walkeryoungbird.org.
Retired U.S. Army Combat Veteran | NAHJ Member | Writer | Cultural Advocate
I’m Daniel Crespo-Montero Sr., although many know me as El Indio Gordo. I’m the Managing Editor of OMG Magazine, a retired U.S. Army combat veteran, a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), and a writer with a passion for culture, community, and storytelling.
My journey hasn’t exactly followed a traditional path, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I spent more than three decades in the U.S. Army, working in military law enforcement, paralegal services, and human resources. I also hold a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Spanish and an Associate degree in Small Business Entrepreneurship. Those experiences have shaped how I understand people, leadership, and the world around me.
As a proud Boricua with Indigenous Taíno roots, cultural preservation is especially important to me. Within the Higuayagua Taíno community, I’ve served in several leadership roles and currently serve as Pennsylvania’s Regional Kasike and Bahari for Atunwa.
My community involvement has also included serving as a New York City Ambassador for the National Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce. I’m also a former Boy Scout and proud Scout dad.
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