https://www.asiatail.com/ Asia Tail is a Cherokee artist, curator, and community organizer based in Seattle, Washington. A citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, Tail was born and raised on Coast Salish territories and is an active member of the Pacific Northwest’s Urban Native community. She earned her BFA from the Cooper Union School of Art in New York in 2014, where she attended on a four-year full-tuition scholarship and received the Brandon Burns Stewart Memorial Prize for Excellence in Painting. Her studio practice includes painting, collage, beadwork, installation, and other media.
Tail’s artwork has been shown in museums, galleries, and public-art contexts across the Pacific Northwest and nationally. Selected exhibitions and installations include for all before and after, a temporary public installation for the Bellwether Arts Festival/Bellevue Art Museum; Blood Memory, a temporary public installation at Seattle Center’s Poetry Garden through the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture; Edwin T. Pratt: A Living Legacy at the Northwest African American Museum; Women’s Work at the NARS Foundation in New York and Columbia City Gallery in Seattle; In Red Ink at the Museum of Northwest Art; Moon Moan: Works by Asia Tail & Raven Juarez at 950 Gallery in Tacoma; Quota at SOIL Gallery; and NW Art Now @ TAM at Tacoma Art Museum.
Her public art and commissioned projects include Beaded Necklace at Seattle Center’s Poetry Garden, presented October 1, 2019–January 6, 2020 as part of the Poetry Garden Art Series. The work used beadwork as a landscape-based gesture of gifting, reciprocity, and Indigenous ecological knowledge. Tail was also one of twelve artists commissioned for Seattle’s 2020 Public Art Comes to Your Front Yard project, a citywide public-art sign initiative organized by the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, and Seattle Department of Transportation.
Beyond her own studio and public-art practice, Tail has played a major role in expanding Indigenous arts infrastructure in Seattle and the broader Salish Sea region. She co-founded yəhaw̓ Indigenous Creatives Collective, which began as a regional arts initiative with more than 20 sites and 50 events, culminating in a 2019 inaugural exhibition at King Street Station featuring work by more than 200 Indigenous creatives. Today, she serves as executive director of yəhaw̓, an intertribal Indigenous arts nonprofit rematriating 1.5 acres of land in South Seattle as a Native-led arts, culture, ecological restoration, and community space.
Tail also works as a freelance consultant with museums, public agencies, cultural organizations, and cross-sector partners to support Indigenous representation, public art, funding access, and community-centered cultural practice. Her professional experience includes public art consulting for the Seattle Aquarium, Chief Seattle Club, Seattle’s Office of the Waterfront, the Washington State Convention Center, and Tacoma’s Office of Arts & Cultural Vitality. She has also noted consulting work connected to Indigenous public artworks for the Washington State Convention Center, Seattle Aquarium, Seattle Waterfront, and Pioneer Square.
Her honors include the first Vadon Foundation Native Artist Fellowship from Artist Trust in 2019, Artist Trust’s Grants for Artist Projects award in 2015, selection for Washington State Arts Commission’s Curator Roster, recognition as one of Seattle Magazine’s Most Influential People in 2019, appointment to Seattle’s inaugural Indigenous Advisory Council in 2022, and participation in Harvard Business School’s Young American Leaders Program in 2023.
Selected commissions / public art
Year
Project
Site / organization
Notes
2021
for all before and after
Bellwether Arts Festival / Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA
Temporary public installation.
2020
Public Art Comes to Your Front Yard
Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, SDOT
One of twelve commissioned artists for citywide public-art yard signs.
2019
Beaded Necklace / Poetry Garden installation
Seattle Center Poetry Garden / Seattle Office of Arts & Culture
Temporary public installation, Oct. 1, 2019–Jan. 6, 2020.
2019
Blood Memory
Seattle Center’s Poetry Garden / Seattle Office of Arts & Culture
Listed in artist CV as a temporary public installation.
Sources
Primary sources: Asia Tail official About page and CV; Artist Trust profile; Seattle Office of Arts & Culture Art Beat; Seattle Department of Neighborhoods Indigenous Advisory Council profile.
Asia Tail is an artist and community organizer based in Seattle, Washington. Asia attended the Cooper Union School of Art in New York and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2014. Her studio practice includes painting, collage, beadwork, and other media.
Asia is the executive director of yəhaẃ Indigenous Creatives Collective, an intertribal arts nonprofit rematriating 1.5 acres of land in South Seattle. She also works as a freelance consultant with cross-sector organizations to channel resources into Indigenous communities. She was the recipient of the first Vadon Foundation Native Artist Fellowship in 2019, and was named one of Seattle’s Most Influential People by Seattle Magazine the same year. In 2022, she was selected to serve on the City of Seattle’s inaugural Indigenous Advisory Council. In 2023, she participated in Harvard Business School’s Young American Leaders Program. She is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, born and raised on Coast Salish territories.