Tony Abeyta
b. 1965
BORN IN
Gallup, New Mexico
KNOWN FOR
Abstract Indian figure-motifs
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 values his cultural heritage, which he reflects in his artwork and is especially focused on expression of spiritual aspects of life.
