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Ad Code: 4
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from Auction House Records.
Depicting a kachina-like figure
Artwork images are copyright of the artist or assignee
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Growing up in Gallup, New Mexico, Tony Abeyta is a Navajo Indian who
knew from the time he was young that he wanted to be an artist.
Abeyta graduated from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe
and has studied art at the Maryland Institute College of Art in
Baltimore and abroad in France and Italy. The artist also studied
at the Chicago Art Institute as a Ford Foundation Scholar.
In
2002, he was enrolled in a master of arts degree from New York
University, having earned an associate degree in fine arts at the
Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe.
In most of his
abstract, mixed media works of Indian symbolism, he works with an
experimental technique of sand, encaustic wax and layers of oil paint,
something he refers to as very tactile and physical. He also
works with wood, earth pigments, iron, bronze, and copper and treats
his metals with chemicals to create different colors.
He is
the son of painter Narcisso Abeyta and grew up in Gallup rather than on
the reservation. He values his cultural heritage, which he reflects in
his artwork and is especially focused on expression of spiritual
aspects of life.
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Biography from Cline Fine Art:
| "If
the paintings are successful, they should communicate a powerful force,
a feeling that is contained in all of us. They are very non-tangible:
an idea I have takes on a presence of its own"...Tony Abeyta.
Tony
Abeyta, born 1966, knew from very early on that he wanted to be an
artist and nothing else. Son of respected Navajo painter Narcisso
Abeyta, he had the example set from his father that an skilled artist
can make a career with his talents. Growing up in Gallup, New Mexico,
rather than on the reservation, was also a factor in directing Abeyta's
career.
Abeyta attended the Institute of American Indian Art in
Santa Fe, earning an Associate Degree in Fine Arts. With the help of a
Ford Foundation grant, he then traveled to the south of France to study
sculpture. Further studies took him to Florence, Italy. Despite his
affection for Europe, Abeyta chose to return to the United States and
to study painting in the graduate program at the Chicago Art Institute.
Abeyta
views his imagery as intercultural, created out of the experiences of
his own life. The creative use of textures, particularly sand, colors
and themes are all evidence in Abeyta's paintings. The artist currently
lives and paints in Taos, New Mexico.
Selected Exhibitions:
1998 Cline Fine Art Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1997 Native Abstraction, Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, Santa Fe, NM
1997 Reinventions/Departures, Cline Fine Art Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1997 Water, Owings-Dewey Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
1996 US Artists '96, Philadelphia, PA
1995 Group Exhibition, Munich, Germany
1994 Narcisso & Tony Abeyta, Wheelright Museum, Santa Fe, NM
1994 J. Cacciola Galleries, New York, NY
1993 Indian Market Exhibition, Santa Fe, NM
1992 Alumni Exhibition, Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM
1991 Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
1987 One Person Show, Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM
1987 Print Exhibition, Pembroke University, North Carolina
1985 Governor's Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1985 Navajo Community College, Tsaile, AZ |
Biography from Adobe Gallery:
| Educated at Santa Fe's Institute of American Indian Art, the Maryland Institute's College of Art in Baltimore, and then overseas in Southern France and Florence, Italy, Tony Abeyta (b.1965) - Navajo (Diné), a graduate of the Maryland Institute, returned to school taking postgraduate classes in art and filmmaking at the Chicago Art Institute on a Ford Foundation scholarship.
Abeyta uses the bold colors representative of his homeland and finds his medium of painting involving sand, acrylic, and oil paint, gold leafing and encaustic wax and collage elements to achieve the desired results of his work.
“I use many different techniques, mediums and processes to reinforce my ideas. Although I have studied sculpture, drawing and printmaking, I choose painting as my means of translating these ideas as well as my spiritual self onto the canvas”.
Abeyta works with vast fields of color and texture one might find in Indian crosses, early Navajo (Diné) blanket designs, as well as prehistoric sensibilities of Indian design and earth toned color. Abeyta's work has predominantly focused on Native American deities such as the Navajo (Diné) Yei-be-chai and Kachinas. He shows the importance of these images in Native American religion and culture without literally depicting them.
“I want my work to reinforce the ideology of Indian religion, its strength, its beauty and semblance. I work to create an interpretation of these deities translated through myself and given an identity devoid of their actual documented existence. I'm more interested in an icon or the idea, which these beings represent. This system of ritual belief is the most important basis in Indian culture and insures its infinite existence”.
Abeyta makes a living from his artwork, which also deals in American Indian images. Early recognition has allowed him to devote his time to what he loves best. Abeyta is an excellent example of the contemporary Southwestern Indian artist whose struggles for success have differed dramatically from predecessors. |
| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
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