Joseph M. Sánchez is an American artist born in 1948 in Trinidad, Colorado, of Pueblo, Spanish, and German descent. Raised on the White Mountain Apache Reservation, Sánchez’s early passion for art was encouraged in grade school and developed through a largely self-taught path enriched by collaborations with mentors such as Daphne Odjig and Philip C. Curtis. His surrealist style, characterised by sensual, dreamlike imagery and bold abstraction, began to emerge during his time in the U.S. Marine Corps in the late 1960s.

Sánchez was a founding member and the only non-Canadian artist of the Professional Native Indian Artists Inc. (PNIAI), also known as the Indigenous Group of Seven. Formed in the early 1970s in Winnipeg, this pioneering collective challenged the mainstream art world’s exclusion of Indigenous artists and helped define a contemporary Indigenous aesthetic through vivid colours, dynamic forms, and cultural storytelling. Sánchez’s curatorial career includes serving as Chief Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe and acting as U.S. curator for the SITE Santa Fe Biennial.

The Professional Native Indian Artists Inc.
The Professional Native Indian Artists Inc. (PNIAI), also known as the Indigenous Group of Seven, was a groundbreaking alliance formed in the early 1970s by seven First Nations artists: Jackson Beardy, Eddy Cobiness, Alex Janvier, Norval Morrisseau, Daphne Odjig, Carl Ray, and Joseph Sánchez. Together, they demanded recognition as professional contemporary artists at a time when Indigenous art was marginalised by mainstream institutions. Their collective vision fused ancestral knowledge with contemporary styles, creating vivid, dynamic works rooted in Indigenous philosophies and aesthetics. This activism and artistic innovation helped spark a renaissance in Indigenous art, inspiring generations to come.