Press Coverage
Hyperallergic
A Navajo Artists Family’s Take on Love, Compassion, and Resistance
Works by the Abeyta family of artists encourage thinking beyond activism and legislation as a means for political progress.
Albuquerque Journal
On the road again: City Different hosts PBS’ ‘Antiques Roadshow’
On the road again: City Different hosts PBS’ ‘Antiques Roadshow’
The line for tribal arts featured a familiar face among the appraisers. Navajo contemporary artist Tony Abeyta was asked by the series to work the show for the Santa Fe event. Abeyta took a break for a day from his painting and was enjoying seeing all of the treasures.
New Mexico Magazine
Art, Trauma, and the Abeyta Family Legacy
Art, Trauma, and the Abeyta Family Legacy
BEYOND THE SANTA FE PLAZA, where history pulses and church bells ring, you climb the creaking steps to Tony Abeyta’s studio. As you ascend, the scents of oil paint, dust, and something like old leather infuse the air. It’s easy to imagine that you are breathing in Paris, Venice, or New York City—because if an artistic legacy were a scent, this would be it. Here, on the ancestral homeland of the Tewa people, Abeyta documents the landscape around him, using abstraction, vivid colors, and enormous canvases to tell a story as if the land, too, were a person living through uncertain times.
Essential West Magazine
Native American art and history as told through the Abeyta Family
Native American art and history as told through the Abeyta Family
To pull at the threads of the Abeyta family of artmakers – father Narciso, daughters Pablita and Elizabeth, and the baby of the family, son Tony – reveals an astonishingly thorough history of not only Diné (Navajo) people through the 20th century into today, but also modern and contemporary Native American art broadly. One family as representative of thousands. The traumas and the triumphs.
Essential West Magazine
The Abeyta you know, and those you don't, on view together at Wheelwright Museum
The Abeyta you know, and those you don't, on view together at Wheelwright Museum
Anyone even a little bit interested in Western art or Native American art should be familiar with the name Tony Abeyta. No museum or important private collection of the material can be considered complete without him.
The names Narciso Abeyta (1918–1998), Pablita Abeyta (1953–2017) and Elizabeth Abeyta (1955–2006) are less familiar among aficionados, if not totally unknown. The four family members – father, daughters and son – come together at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe for the exhibition “Abeyta | To’Hajiilee K’é,” on view through January 7, 2023.
Southwest Contemporary Magazine
Abeyta | To’Hajiilee K’é at the Wheelwright
Abeyta | To’Hajiilee K’é at the Wheelwright
While some families are creative hobbyists on the weekends, art was a full-time lifestyle for Tony Abeyta (Navajo) and his family of decorated artists.
His father Narciso, a World War II Navajo Code Talker and Golden Gloves boxer, is known for his figurative paintings depicting Navajo life—his work is held in the collections of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.
Santa Fe Reporter
A Family Affair: Wheelwright goes deep with the iconic Abeyta family
A Family Affair: Wheelwright goes deep with the iconic Abeyta family
Most shows at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian are fairly personal for Chief Curator Andrea Hanley, but in the case of the recently opened Abeyta | To’Hajiilee K’é,dedicated to the illustrious Abeyta family of Navajo artists, it’s a little bit more intense. Hanley previously worked with Pablita Abeyta at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, and not only did she get a front-row seat to the celebrated artist’s creativity and personal life, she learned a lot about how the institutional art world works. For this and countless other reasons, Hanley is proud—and should be—of the new show, which runs through early January next year.
Albuquerque Journal
Wheelwright exhibit looks at two generations of Navajo artists
Wheelwright exhibit looks at two generations of Navajo artists
The Abeyta family gestated a fulcrum of artistic innovation ranging from the Studio Style to contemporary abstraction. The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian has gathered their work in a tribute to two generations of Navajo life.
Berkleyside
Is celebrating Thanksgiving disrespectful to Indigenous people?
Is celebrating Thanksgiving disrespectful to Indigenous people?
Internationally known Native artist Tony Abeyta (Navajo) lives half time in Berkeley and half time in Santa Fe. He recently completed a painting of sacred corn reaching skyward for Wahpepah’s Kitchen in Oakland.
KRWG Public Media
2021 New Mexico Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts
2021 New Mexico Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts
2021 marks the 47th annual celebration of the Governor’s Arts Awards. A diverse and noteworthy list of painters, weavers, sculptors, dancers, musicians, storytellers, poets, actors, playwrights, and potters have been honored by the Governor’s Arts Awards. Past awardees include: Georgia O’Keeffe, Robert Redford, George R.R. Martin, Maria Martinez, Tony Abeyta, Glenna Goodacre, Tony Hillerman, N. Scott Momaday, Tammy Garcia, Lucy Lippard, and Catherine Oppenheimer.
Forbes
Santa Fe Galleries Forge Ahead Despite Lack Of Tourism, Indian Market
Santa Fe Galleries Forge Ahead Despite Lack Of Tourism, Indian Market
Widmar’s gallery currently exhibits the work of Diné (Navajo) artist Tony Abeyta through September 15. Abeyta is among the most successful contemporary Native artists.
New York Times
Don’t Miss These Art Shows and Events This Fall
Don’t Miss These Art Shows and Events This Fall
STRETCHING THE CANVAS: EIGHT DECADES OF NATIVE PAINTING More than three dozen postwar paintings by Native American artists. Nov. 16-fall 2021; National Museum of the American Indian in New York, americanindian.si.edu.
Indian Country Today
Native Artist Tony Abeyta Talks Inspiration and Aspirations
Native Artist Tony Abeyta Talks Inspiration and Aspirations
The modest studio, a second-story flat just off the plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico, was a riot of color, images and media. Paintings and assemblages on paper perched in helter-skelter rows against the walls, a multipanel wooden piece rested in the middle of the floor, and easels stood in streaming shafts of morning light.
Navajo Hopi Observer
Tony Abeyta displays contemporary art at MNA
Tony Abeyta displays contemporary art at MNA
Tony Abeyta: Convergence, opened at the Museum of Northern Arizona (MNA) June 18, with more than 20 works by the contemporary painter on display, which is part of the museum's summer exhibition.