In Celebration from the Underworld, Tony Abeyta creates one of the most ambitious and profound works of his career—a monumental vision of Diné cosmology rendered with extraordinary confidence, scale, and painterly force. Stretching nearly eleven feet wide, the canvas unfolds as a charged field of figures, symbols, and mythic references, where celebration and ceremony emerge from beneath the surface of the visible world. The “underworld” here is not a place of darkness, but one of origin, transformation, and renewal.

Abeyta layers dense impasto, sweeping gestures, and luminous color to build a composition that vibrates with movement and energy. Human and spirit forms, ritual iconography, and abstracted elements collide and cohere, creating a visual rhythm that mirrors Navajo ceremonial cycles. Levity and reverence exist simultaneously—joy, humor, and gravity intertwined—reflecting a worldview in which balance is achieved through continual motion and exchange.

Widely regarded as one of the leading Indigenous painters of his generation, Abeyta bridges ancestral knowledge and contemporary abstraction with rare authority. Celebration from the Underworld stands as a tour de force: a painting that insists on scale not for spectacle alone, but to hold the weight of mythology, memory, and living cultural continuity.