TONY ABEYTA
Tony Abeyta (b. 1965) is a Navajo (Diné) painter. Works by Tony Abeyta are available through Trotta-Bono Contemporary, a by-appointment gallery specializing in contemporary Native American art in Santa Monica, California.
— SELECTED WORK —
Deer Spirit Rhythms
Deer with Magpie
— ARCHIVE —
Celebration from the Underworld
Animal Dance
Top Shelf/Garden de Luxe
Testosterone Flowers: Offspring I
Seeds Dispersing
– TONY ABEYTA –
Navajo, 1965—
Tony Abeyta is a contemporary Diné (Navajo) artist celebrated for his dynamic and richly layered mixed-media paintings, oil landscapes, charcoal drawings, sculptures, and fine jewelry. He was born into an accomplished family of artists, the youngest of seven children—his father, Narciso Abeyta, was a renowned Navajo painter and code talker, and his mother, Sylvia Shipley Abeyta, a celebrated Quaker ceramicist. Tony’s artistic journey began early; he earned an Associate of Fine Arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe in 1986, later completing a BFA at Maryland Institute College of Art, an MFA at New York University, and an honorary doctorate from IAIA in 2013. Along the way, he also studied in France, Italy, Chicago, and Maine, absorbing diverse formal techniques that would shape his distinctive visual language.
Abeyta’s work radiates the emotional resonance of the New Mexico landscape—canyon walls, mesas, skies alive with motion—and interweaves this environment with Navajo stories, traditions, and spirituality. His bold use of color, texture, abstracted forms, and ancestral iconography nod to American modernism. From sweeping oil canvases to intricate charcoal and ink wash pieces, Abeyta distills the elemental power of earth, sky, and cosmos into emotionally charged compositions.
Abeyta’s art is widely recognized and collected by leading museums and institutions across the United States and internationally. His work is part of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, the Denver Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Autry Museum of the American West (Los Angeles), the Heard Museum (Phoenix), the Eiteljorg Museum (Indianapolis), Philbrook Museum (Tulsa), James Museum (St. Petersburg, FL), Wichita Art Museum, Tucson Museum of Art, New Mexico Museum of Art, Montclair Art Museum, among many others. His paintings and prints are also included in the U.S. Department of State’s Art in Embassies program and in many major public collections.