Cara Romero: Panûpünüwügai (Living Light) Gallery Talk: Emilia Mickevicius

At this event you will have the opportunity to meet and hear perspectives about the exhibition from curator, Emilia Mickevicius as she guides members of Arizona Photography Alliance through a private exhibition tour of .

Organized by the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Cara Romero: Panûpünüwügai (Living Light) is the first major solo exhibition exploring the narrative artistic practice of the Chemehuevi photographer and presents more than 50 works Romero created between 2013 and 2024. The exhibition features new and never-before-seen photographs, site-specific installations, large scale photographs, and iconic views across five thematic sections.

Born in Inglewood, California in 1977, Cara Romero is known for dramatic fine art photography that examines Indigenous life in contemporary contexts. An enrolled citizen of the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, Romero was raised between contrasting settings: the rural Chemehuevi reservation in Mojave Desert, California, and the urban sprawl of Houston, Texas. Informed by her identity, Romero’s visceral approach to representing Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultural memory—both collective history and lived experiences—results in a blending of fine art and editorial styles. Her visual storytelling brilliantly challenges dominant narratives of Indigenous decline and erasure and disrupts preconceived notions about what it means to be a Native American, showing the diversity within Indigenous nations and communities.

The tour is limited to 30 AZPA members.

WE WILL MEET IN THE LOBBY AT 5:45PM, PLEASE BE PROMT.

Not a member but would like to attend? See memberships here.

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Image Above: Cara Romero, 3 Sisters, 2022, archival pigment print. Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Acquisition and Preservation of Native American Art Fund; 2022.47.2. © Cara Romero. Image courtesy of the artist.

Image Below: Cara Romero, Devil’s Claw No. 1, 2025, archival pigment print. © Cara Romero. Image courtesy of the artist.

About the Curator

Emilia Mickevicius is an art historian and curator who specializes in 20th century and contemporary U.S. photography. She joined the Phoenix Art Museum and CCP in 2023 after having served at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In her role as curatorial assistant in SFMOMA’s photography department, she organized and contributed to exhibitions such as Sightlines: Photographs from the Collection (2022); (2023), the current SFMOMA exhibit, (2023) among others.

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IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

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