Relative Arts

Relative Arts is a brick-and-mortar community space, open studio, and shop that showcases contemporary Indigenous fashion and design in NYC’s East Village. Our mission is to provide a peer-run space that fosters the advancement of Indigenous futurism through collaboration, celebration, and education. We are Indigenous owned and operated by Korina Emmerich (Puyallup) and Liana Shewey (Mvskoke).

 

Located at 367 E 10th St, NY, NY 10009, we are open Thursday - Sunday 12pm - 6pm. Visitors will be able to shop from a curated collection of Indigenous artists from across the U.S., Canada, Central and South America. 

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Artist and designer Korina Emmerich (Puyallup) founded EMME Studio in 2015 and co-founded Relative Arts, NYC in 2023. Her colorful work celebrates her paternal Indigenous heritage from The Puyallup tribe while aligning art and design with education. With a strong focus on social and climate justice, Emmerich's artwork strives to expose and dismantle systems of oppression in the fashion industry and challenge colonial ways of thinking.

 

Her work has been featured in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Moma PS1, The Denver Art Museum, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Vogue, Elle, Instyle, New York Magazine, and more notable publications. She has presented her collections in Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week, Indigenous Fashion and Arts, Santa Fe Indian Market's Couture Runway Show, and New York Fashion Week.

 

Liana Shewey (Mvskoke) is the Programming Director at Relative Arts. Presently working as an outreach educator at the New-York Historical Society. Shewey is a committed community organizer and has led educational events, teach-ins, and speak-outs to create awareness around missing and murdered Indigenous relatives, the damaging effects of fossil fuels, and Indigenous liberation. She has also worked in music and event production for more than 15 years and will be bringing those skills and relationships to Relative Arts to host events featuring artists of all forms, and to develop progressive educational programming.

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Nishina Shapwaykeesic-Loft is Kanien’kehá:ka from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. She is a 2S queer, multi-disciplinary artist in a wide spectrum of mediums. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours from York University in Theatre Production and Design. 

 

Nishina works in the theatre industry with a specialization in costuming. Her recent credits for Costume Design are BentBoy (Young People's Theatre) and Niizh (Native Earth Performing Arts). She is a mural artist working with StART as a junior curator and an indigenous advisor. She is the Associate Programmer for the Toronto Queer Film Festival and has worked in programming for  imagineNATIVE Media + Arts Festival. She is a beadwork artist exploring different materials and incorporating modern interpretations (@nshtsh). She is the Resident Artist for Relative Arts located in the East Village, NYC. She continues to grow within her field and explore new opportunities.

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Sincerely,

Your Relatives in NYC

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