Gerald Clarke is a Cahuilla visual artist, educator, and tribal leader whose work and teaching center Native art, culture, and social issues.
Bio
Gerald Clarke is a visual artist, educator, tribal leader, and cultural practitioner whose family has lived in the Anza Valley for time immemorial. As an enrolled citizen of the Cahuilla Band of Indians, Gerald lives in the home his grandfather built (c.1940) on the Cahuilla Indian Reservation and currently oversees the Clarke family cattle ranch. He is currently a Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California Riverside where he teaches classes in Native American art, history, and culture.
Recent exhibitions include Breck Create, Breckenridge, Colorado (2024); Desert X, Palm Desert (2023); and High Desert Test Sites, Joshua Tree (2022), among many others. In 2020, the Palm Springs Art Museum hosted Gerald Clarke: Falling Rock, the first major retrospective of the artist’s work. He is the recipient of a Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship (2025) and the Eiteljorg Museum Fellowship for Native American Fine Art (2007).
Notable artist residencies include Bowdin College (2026), Vancouver International (2025), and The Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico (2015). The Association of Tribal Archies, Libraries, and Museums awarded Clarke the 2024 Distinguished Artist Award.
Clarke is a frequent lecturer, speaking about Native art, culture and social issues. He holds a B.A. in Art from the University of Central Arkansas and the M.A./M.F.A. degrees in Painting/Sculpture from Stephen F. Austin State University located in Nacogdoches, Texas.