February 13, 2026—The work of Oklahoma multimedia artist Tom Farris is featured in the Arizona State Museum’s (ASM) exhibit, Tricksters and Truthtellers: Different Ways of Seeing. The artist will be in Tucson next month to lead an art-making workshop, give a public talk, and welcome visitors to ASM’s pop-up exhibit at the Tucson Festival of Books.
About the Artist
A member of the Cherokee Nation and Otoe-Missouria tribe, Farris has been immersed in American Indian art his entire life. The child of avid collectors, he spent a good deal of his youth in museums, galleries and artists' homes. Having such intimate contact with that art world, Farris found much to inspire his own artistic pursuits. He also finds a lot of inspiration in pop culture. With references to animated TV series, science fiction movies, and comic book superheroes, Farris’s work might challenge the viewer to categorize his work as “American Indian.” He’s okay with that.
“I’m an artist and I make weird stuff.” A vintage Volkswagon Jetta, customized inside and out with his work, encompasses everything he does in one piece, he says. “Which is hard to do because my skills are all over the place.”
Farris is as accomplished at woodworking and painting as he is in digital creation and videography. Throw in sewing, some found objects, and a little kitbashing, and you have an idea of how eclectic this artist’s work can be. “As a kid growing up, I would make things from what I could find laying around, or as my sister would say, ‘He's making stuff out of trash again.’”
“I love comic books, I always have, but as a Native kid, I was always frustrated with stereotyped characters wearing feathers or fringe and with some hacky name like “Warpath.” What I wanted was just a Native guy who was a superhero, so I created Cherokee Superman.” The iconic chest plate actually says “Cherokee Superman” in Cherokee syllabary.
Farris’s latest projects include a customized lowrider bike and a commissioned slot machine for a museum in Kansas City.
Remote Work/Close Collaboration
After he responded to their “call to artists,” curators at the Arizona State Museum began working with Farris a year ago. They in Tucson and he in Oklahoma. The remote collaboration resulted in a pop-up exhibit entitled, Tricksters and Truthtellers: Different Ways of Seeing.
Collaborating remotely was not new to Farris. He had just completed his term as the 2025 Director of the Indigenous Pop Expo at Duke University, having organized the event from Oklahoma. “I like working this way. It allows me to work when inspiration really strikes. The most difficult thing about ASM’s project was figuring out how my Tricksters would interact with the museum’s collection of artwork. Once that was established, it all came together.”
Farris’s Raven and Coyote, ancient and familiar archetypes in many Indigenous cultures, take the lead as the exhibit’s hosts and tour guides, offering witty banter and thoughtful insights, while discussing objects from ASM’s collections. “I wanted to present traditional Native stories in a different way. So often, Native culture is pigeonholed in the late 1800s Western era. Setting the characters and the objects in Mid-Century Modern homes subtly shifts the paradigm.”
The exhibit also features images by acclaimed contemporary Native artists Julie Bufflohead, Chris Pappan, Steven J. Yazzie, Eliza Noranjo Norse, Preston Singletary, John Hitchcock, and others.
Exhibits in the Community
Pop-up exhibits is just one creative way ASM is continuing to share its collections with the public. Tricksters and Truthtellers is the second so far created by ASM’s exhibits team, undaunted and inspired by the fact that the museum’s in-house exhibit galleries are currently inaccessible.
“I really enjoyed working with the museum team. I chose to take on the challenge of showcasing ASM’s objects because it is important to remind people that they should interact with museums and their collections and learn real history. Native history is told through our artifacts, items we make and use. We weren’t allowed to write the history books so our stories have to be told somehow. Education about Native peoples in general is almost nonexistent, just cursory. It is important to share the knowledge that Native people fought so hard to maintain, and to share who we are.”
Tricksters and Truthtellers debuted at Tucson Meet Yourself last fall and is now touring and appearing at other community gatherings. It will next be at the Tucson Festival of Books on March 14 & 15 where the public is invited to come meet the artist.
Farris has participated in, and has received awards, from a number of art shows, including The South Eastern Art Show and Market, The Cherokee Art Market, The Artesian Art Market, The Trail of Tears Art Show, The Indigenous Fine Art Market, The Eiteljorg Indian Art Market, Red Earth, The Artesian Art Market, and The Southwestern Association of Indian Artists Santa Fe Market. He has exhibited at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. and in venues in New York City. His work is held in many private and public collections including the Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ; The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art, Tulsa, OK; Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, IN; American Indian Museum, The University of South Carolina at Lancaster, SC; Wheelwright Museum, Santa Fe, NM, and the Sam Noble Natural History Museum, Norman, OK.
