Mercedes Dorame is a multidisciplinary artist who calls on her Tongva ancestry to engage the problematics of (in)visibility and ideas of cultural construction and ancestral connection to land and sky. Born in Los Angeles, California, she received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and her undergraduate degree from UCLA. 

She is currently a regular faculty member at CalArts in the Photo Media Program and is part of the initial cohort of Unseen California. In 2023, the Getty commissioned her sculptural installation Wosha’axre Yaang’aro (Looking Back) as its inaugural Rotunda Commission. Her work is also on view in six PST ART exhibitions throughout Los Angeles. Her work was recently explored in the Los Angeles Times article “How artist Mercedes Dorame shares pieces of her Tongva heritage across L.A.’s public landscapes.” Dorame’s work is in the permanent collections of The Getty, the Hammer Museum, the Huntington, LACMA, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Autry Museum of the American West.

September 26, 2026–August 2028 in the Samuel & Minna Grodin Gallery 

Promised Lands: California's Unratified Treaties and Native Resilience explores the history of federal treaties and the complexities of treaty history in California. Through archival materials, contemporary objects, images, and voices from local tribal communities, visitors will gain a more nuanced understanding of our state's history as well as an appreciation for the strong sense of place felt by community members.

Promised Lands: California's Unratified Treaties and Native Resilience is created by the Autry Museum of the American West in collaboration with the National Museum of the American Indian and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.