Micah Wesley

native Kiowa Painter — Micah Wesley (Mvskoke, Kiowa) is an impressionist/modernist painter with a focus on identity and science fiction. He lives in Norman, OK where he paints and creates electric drum patterns. Micah’s focus is identity and references to experience. Micah instructs various courses in art history and is a founding member of the Humble collective in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Micah grew up watching his self-taught painter father, Tillier Wesley, Jr. and listening to the singing of his classically trained mother, Pamela Wesley-Autuabo. Childhood drawings of animals and dinosaurs eventually blossomed into more mature subjects. As a teenager, exposure to graffiti art also influenced Mr. Wesley’s style and technique. Today he works in various media, including oils, acrylics, and enamel paint, on gessoed canvas. Mr. Wesley creates most of his artwork spontaneously, placing the brush on the canvas whenever struck by inspiration. Much of his current work draws parallels between films and the history of Native Americans. Rejecting the traditional narratives of art history, which he views as overly homogeneous, he seeks to emphasize individualism and identity in his art. Mr. Wesley’s recent painting focuses on science fiction films, such as Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. He draws inspiration from the life struggles of characters and communities and uses these themes to create connections between contemporary Indian communities and those inhabiting a dystopian future. He earned his MFA from the University of Oklahoma and BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts.

“I paint my experience as a tribal member living in urban Oklahoma and the Southwest. I observe art history and indigenous art history of the America’s. My identity was forged from conflict, fear, family, heritage and fragments. Making faster and better decisions in the painting process has helped in my personal life and painting practice. I paint on multiple supports and use acrylic, oil and enamel.”

— Micah Wesley

“Art is important to me as a healing process for myself and it has the power to inform or destroy. Art must be handled with great care from Native artists because it is a direct extension of themselves, community, culture, and image. The life of the artist and art must be equal, positive or negative, or it is not, in my regards, worth anyone experiencing. I have met Native artists that create truths they do not believe. I have seen Native exhibitions of work I loved…until I read the artist statement or met the artist. I would like to see more Native artists create forgiveness. Forgiving themselves, their families, their tribes, their religious leaders, their governments, their neighbors, and their enemies…this is why Native art is so important to us.”

— Micah Wesley