This jar is part of a new series of pieces by Les Namingha.  This, “Pueblo Series” is focused on universal design similarities among various Pueblo pottery. As Les is both Zuni and Hopi-Tewa, he has a lot of cultural imagery to pull from for this body of work.  Les says of this piece:

“This jar is part of my “Pueblo Jar series” that I started recently. This series interprets or incorporates elements from other Pueblos outside of my Zuni and Tewa-Hopi influenced work.  My focus is on finding similarities in design elements across all Pueblo communities. This jar looks at the Acoma Pueblo style of geometric grid designs.  I have decontructed them and layered them into abstraction to create a minimalist style.”

The jar is a round shape with a slight neck.  The body of the piece is painted with a variety of geometric designs in red on a white surface.  They are separated by bolder black lines.  Layered on top of them are additional geometric patterns which are turned in different directions and painted in a tighter style.  It’s almost as if you could remove the bands of design from the top of the bowl!  The base and neck are painted with bolder lines and the neck has several classic Acoma style triangular designs, which are often seen on their pottery.  It’s a striking balance of shape, design, and color.  It is signed on the bottom.  The last photo is one from the jar in the gallery, which looks exceptional against a red wall!