Welcome to KIVA Gallery
KIVA GALLERY specializes in Native North American (’Indian’) arts and crafts, – focusing the contemporary art; the Native Art of to-day.
This is unique in Northern Europe, showing art by Native North Americans and particularly from Southwest USA.
– Who are these ‘Indians’ from the Southwest ? They do not dress in feathers, live in tepees or migrate with buffalos. Many indians of the Southwest are farmers, who have been cultivating corn and beans on their land for hundreds of years. Still today, many live in simple houses made by stone or sundried clay and straw (’Adobe’ houses). One of the ancient Hopi villages, Old Oraibi, has been continously inhabited since our medieval times, – considered the oldest settlement in the U.S.
– Where do these Indians live?
Many live in villages called pueblos (sp. village) on reservation land (’reserved’ for Indians), only Indians are allowed to live here.
Most homes of today have electricity and running water. The TV often has a prominent place in the simplest home.
The North American Indian of today live in two cultures, their own traditional with ancient tales, cermonies and rites, – highly meaningful to those of the tribe (and sometimes also to Indians exclusive to the tribe). Their societies may have maternal lineage (e.g. Hopi and Zuni tribes), or paternal (pueblos on Northern Rio Grande, New Mexico). These Native Indians live in an extended family system, providing social contact and support.
– Why ‘Kiva Gallery’ ?
Kiva, means a cermonial (underground) chamber, now serving as a ‘temple’ of spiritual life and cermony. Nightly Kachina dancers may sometimes dance for hours in the Kiva , – to the sound of rythmic drums. The Kiva has a very central place in the village, hidden away from eyes of visitors, – it can only be reached by a ladder.
KIVA GALLERY invites you to experience a dynamic contemporary art with roots in the old, – and in the modern world of today.
Welcome
Owner – Mona Terenius