Photo by Larry Price
Tony Abeyta
Tony Abeyta is a Diné (Navajo) contemporary artist working in mixed media paintings. A graduate of New York University with an honorary doctorate from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, Tony 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.
The youngest of three children, he was born into a distinguished family of Diné artists that includes his late sisters, Pablita and Elizabeth, and his late parents, Narciso and Sylvia Shipley Abeyta. Together, his relatives have excelled in painting, pottery, weaving, and silversmithing. Tony, an artist of international acclaim, works in mediums that include charcoal, oil, acrylic, and silversmithing.
Tony currently works in both Santa Fe, NM and Berkeley, CA. Tony's work is included in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, Boston Fine Arts Museum, Denver art museum, Autry Museum as well as in many other public & private collections.
Education
2013: Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Honorary Doctorate in Humanities
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
Bachelor of Fine Arts (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
Associate of Fine Arts (AFA)
1985: Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine
Recent Exhibitions
2022 Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, “Abeyta | To’Hajiilee K’é” family exhibition, Santa Fe, NM
2021 Autry Museum of the American West, “Masters of the American West” group exhibition, Los Angeles, CA
2021 National Museum of the American Indian “Stretching the Canvas: Eight Decades of Native Painting” group exhibition, New York, NY
2019 Owings Gallery “Our Changing World” solo exhibition, Santa Fe, NM
2019 Altamira Fine Art “Native Spirit: Tony Abeyta With Mateo Romero And Work By Fritz Scholder” Scottsdale, AZ
2018 Sam and Alfreda Maloof Foundation for Arts and Crafts “NeoNative: Toward New Mythologies” group exhibition, Rancho Cucamonga, CA
2017 Museum of Northern Arizona, “Tony Abeyta: Convergence - Tradition & Transition” solo exhibition, Flagstaff, AZ
Selected Museum Collections
National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles, CA
Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK
The Becky Gotchman Family Collection/Forge Foundation, New York, NY
Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ
US Department of State, Art in Embassies collection, Washington, DC
TIA Art Collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico
The James Museum, St. Petersburg, FL
Boston Fine Arts Museum, Boston, MA
Booth Western Art Museum, Atlanta, GA
Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS
Tucson Art Museum, Tucson, AZ
The Fred Jones Museum, Norman, OK
The Colby Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos, NM
Harwood Museum, Taos, NM
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
Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey
Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Santa Fe, NM
Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, CA