The Springfield Museums is honored to present Portraits in RED: Missing & Murdered Indigenous Peoples Painting Project, on view through September 7, 2025, at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts. In this striking series of portraits, artist and activist Nayana LaFond sheds light on the crisis affecting Indigenous peoples, particularly women, who are eleven times more likely to go missing than the national average. The exhibition is the last time the works will be on view together: at its close, the portraits will be returned to living family members.

LaFond (b. 1981), a citizen of the Métis Nation of Ontario, began Portraits in RED in May 2020 as a therapeutic exercise. Each painting depicts a missing or murdered Indigenous person, a family member, or an advocate, rendered in shades of gray to raise awareness, inspire action, and honor the lives and stories of those impacted by this crisis. The canvases are marked by a vivid red handprint—the universal symbol for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s movement (MMIW).

Research by the Urban Indian Health Institute shows Indigenous women and girls in the United States are significantly overrepresented in cases of missing and murdered people by a ratio of 10 to 1. It is estimated that, on average, one in three Native women will be assaulted in her lifetime. Compounding the issue, cases of violence against Indigenous women and girls remain grossly underreported. Of the over 5,700 missing Native women and girls counted by the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) in 2016, only 116 were registered in the federal missing persons database.

The statics are astonishing, but the artist encourages viewers not to focus solely on the numbers. “When looking at the paintings, please consider that these are real people with stories, families, and lives,” she says.

LaFond lives in Western Massachusetts. After studying at the Massachusetts College of Art, she became a full-time painter and has served as a curator and community arts organizer for over twenty years. She was selected as the recipient of the Central Massachusetts YWCA Katharine F. Erskine Award in Art and Culture in 2023 and is featured in TWIRL, an ongoing archive of artist stories comprised of interviews and visual imagery.

Related Programming

Portraits in RED Exhibit Reception
Thursday, April 10, 4–6 pm
Reception for the exhibition in the Community Gallery at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts. Free and open to the public.