meet 2025 invited artist

Jean LaMarr

Cultural Affiliation: Northern Paiute/Achomawi [Pit River]

Jean LaMarr (Northern Paiute/Achomawi [Pit River]) was born in Susanville, California, in 1945. She is an enrolled citizen of the Susanville Rancheria with family ties to northern Nevada and northern California. LaMarr’s art challenges stereotypes and misrepresentations of Native women and peoples, exposes environmental racism of her homelands, and features elements of her cultural traditions. Although LaMarr has worked primarily as a printmaker, she is also acclaimed for her paintings (including murals), assemblages, videos, and installation work. LaMarr’s artistic development was critically influenced by the time she spent at the University of California, Berkeley from 1973-76 when, as a student, she became involved in activism and earned a Master of Fine Arts. Therefore, she describes herself as a community artist-activist. LaMarr is a former printmaking instructor at the Institute of American Indian Arts (1987–1991), San Francisco State University, and California College of the Arts. Currently, she lives on the Susanville Indian Rancheria in northeastern California, where she continues to operate the Native American Graphic Workshop, which she founded in 1994.