Joe Herrera was a significant transitional painter.  The son of pueblo painter, Tonita Pena, he began his art studies at the Santa Fe Indian School and adhered to the exacting, rigid style of the traditional Indian artist.  He later began experimenting with contemporary expressions of classic pictographic motif.  His works are highly sought after today, and are included in several important instutitional collections, such as the Philbrook Museum (Tulsa, OK), Denver Art Museum (Denver, CO), and the Smithsonian Institute (Washington, DC).  In 1954 he was awarded Les Palmes d'Academiques from the French government.

The Gallery has a limited number of original paintings and serigraphs by Joe Herrera.