ARTWORK

Tony creates a powerful range of contemporary and traditional paintings. He explores different mediums such as oil and monotype creating a variety of pieces including charcoal drawings, large scale oil and sand paintings, and abstract mixed media pieces incorporating encaustic wax, copper and printmaking. Please browse through his collections of recent works, contemporary art, traditional art, and prints.

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ABOUT

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Tony Abeyta is a Navajo contemporary artist working in mixed media paintings. He is a graduate from New York University with an honorary doctorate from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. He was the 2012 recipient of the New Mexico Governor’s Excellence in the Arts award, and recognized as a Native treasure by the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture. Tony currently works in both Santa Fe, NM and Berkeley, CA.  His work can be seen at the Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe, NM, and is included in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, Boston Fine Arts Museum, the Heard Museum in Phoenix, AZ, New Mexico Fine Arts Museum, the Autry Museum in Los Angeles, CA, and the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, as well as in many other public & private collections.

Abeyta’s primary focus has been on painting the emotional experience one finds  in the New Mexico landscape . “There exists a rhythm in the land where I was born. I spend a lot of time deciphering the light, the cascades of mesas into canyons, the marriage between earth and sky and the light as it constantly changes at whim, the intensity of rock formations, and the sage and chamisa that accent this poetic experience, unlike any where else I have seen. I am beckoned to remember it and then to paint it.”

  • EXHIBITS & COLLECTIONS

    Selected Exhibits
    2008 – Heard Museum Of Art, "Underworlderness" one person exhibition, Black & White Drawings.
    2008 – SOFA NYNY (Sculptural Objects and Functional Art), Blue Rain Gallery, Armory For The Arts,
    New York, NY
    2007 – SOFA CHICAGO (Sculptural Objects and Functional Art), Blue Rain Gallery, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL
    2007 – Blue Rain Gallery, Santa Fe, N.M., Annual Indian Market Exhibition
    2000 – Southwest Museum, LACMA West, Los Angeles - 10 Year Retrospective
    1999 – Cline Fine Art Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, "Approaching the Unknown" (One man show)
    Cline Fine Art Gallery, Santa Fe NM, ‘Native Manifestations’ (One man show)
    1997 – Cline Fine Art Gallery, Santa Fe NM, Reinventions/Departures (One man show)
    1997 – Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Santa Fe, NM.
    ‘A History Of Santa Fe: An Allegorical Depiction’
    1997 – Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, Santa Fe
    ‘Native Abstractions’, (Group exhibition)
    Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe NM - Masters exhibition
    1996 – Owings Dewey Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM - Water (Group exhibition)
    Turquoise Tortoise Gallery, Sedona, AZ - One man show
    1995-96 – John Cacciola Gallery, NYC - Recent Works
    1994 – Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Santa Fe, NM
    ‘Translating Two worlds’-The Art of Narcisso & Tony Abeyta.
    1991-93 – Albuquerque Museum, New Mexico
    1992-93 – Sherwood's Gallery, Beverly Hills, Ca - Recent Works
    1992 – Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Alumni exhibition
    1991 – Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore - Large scale drawing
    1989 – American Indian Community House, New York - Group exhibition
    1989 – Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Santa Fe, NM - one man show.
    1988 – Lacoste Ecole Des Beaux Arts, France.
    1987 – Glenn Green Galleries, Santa Fe NM
    1987 – Pembroke University, North Carolina - print exhibition.
    1986 – State of New Mexico Governor’s Gallery, Santa Fe, NM - group exhibition.
    Navajo Community College, Tsaile, AZ - printmakers exhibition

    Museum Collections
    Heard Musuem, Phoenix, AZ
    Millicent Rogers Musuem, Taos, NM
    Harwood Musuem, Taos, NM
    National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
    Museum of Arts and Culture, Santa Fe, NM: Permanent Interior Mural In Main Gallery (2000)
    Palm Springs Fine Art Center, CA
    Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, Santa Fe, NM
    Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Santa Fe, NM
    Montclaire Art Museum, New Jersey
    Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Santa Fe, NM
    Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, CA

    Selected Private Collections
    Robert & Joann Balzer - Santa Fe, NM
    Sam & Beverly Maloof - Clairmont, CA
    Rick West - Washington, D.C.
    Mike & Juanita Eagle - San Diego, CA
    Raymond James, Financial - St. Petersburg, FL
    Dan Crane - Los Angeles CA
    James T. Bialac - Pheonix, AZ
    Roger & Mindy Eiteljorg - Indianapolis, IN
    Jack & Maryjo Harrod
    Pueblo of Pojoaque & George Riviera - Pojoaque, NM
    Ann & Burt Kaplan - Chicago, IL
    Gary & Brenda Ruttenberg - Santa Monica, CA
    Scott Avery - Washington, D.C.
    Leroy & Tammy Garcia - Taos, NM
    Roxanne Swenzell - Santa Clara, NM
    Preston & Osa Singletary - Seattle, WA
    Martha & Stuart Streuver - Santa Fe, NM
    John & Sarabess Cahill - Chicago, IL

  • EDUCATION

    2002 – New York University - Masters in Fine Art
    1989 – Art Institute of Chicago - Post Baccalaureate Program
    1988 – Santa Fe Institute of Fine Arts - Master Study Program
    1988 – Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore - BFA
    1987 – Studio Arts Center International, Florence, Italy
    1986-87 – Lacoste, Ecole Des Beaux Arts, France
    1986 – Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe NM - AFA
    1985 – Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine

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MEDIA

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LINKS

 

 

The history of art has kept me intrigued with an array of forceful personalities. I am often influenced by the bravado marks of German Expressionists and the New York abstract Expressionists, but in my more meditative moments I love the work of Agnes Martin and Mark Rothko for their spiritual nature. I have always loved figurative painters like Balthus, George Tooker, the Flemish portraits of yesteryear and the intimate paintings from the early Santa Fe Indian School. I love my friend Sam Maloof’s furniture, Harry Bertoia, Isamu Noguchi and Calder in my three dimensional moments. I worship Andy Goldsworthy and what he does, Bill Viola, Fred Tommaselli and even my 24 year old son Gabriel’s work. Much of which has little or nothing to do with how I work but I thought you might find it interesting.

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CONTACT