Linda Lomahaftewa

Biography
Linda Lomahaftewa (b.1947) is a mixed media artist with a focus on painting and printmaking. Her practice is centered around the concept of landscapes and often includes or is inspired by symbols from her Hopi culture. Pandemic Yellow IV is from a series of monotypes that started out as scribble drawings and represent the colors of the four directions from Hopi culture. Each color symbolizes a different direction. In Hopi belief, Yellow symbolizes North, Red is South, Turquoise(Blue or Green) is West and White is East. With each direction comes knowledge. These prints were created during her artist residency with IAIA and were printed with former student and master printer Michael McCabe. 

Linda Lomahaftewa (Hopi/Choctaw) has had a lustrous 60 year career as an artist and educator. She began her career as early as high school when she moved from Phoenix to Santa Fe to finish her studies at Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) as one of the prestigious academy’s first students. Where she later taught for more than 40 years. Lomahaftewa has exhibited nationally and internationally and has been in numerous traveling exhibitions. Her work has been published in multiple books and is in many collections. She has been listed in Who’s Who in American Arts and twice in Who’s Who in American Indian Arts and won the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation’s Power of Art Award. In 2021, IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts presented a retrospective for the artist, The Moving Land: 60+ Years of Art by Linda Lomahaftewa. The artist lives and works in Santa Fe.

With monotypes, you kind of have to work fast. It’s instant painting almost. There’s more gestural movement in the prints. – Linda Lomahaftewa

Education
1971
MFA, Painting, San Francisco Art Institute

1970
BFA, Painting, San Francisco Art Institute

Selected Exhibitions
2022
Another World, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2014
Crossing Four Rivers: Linda Lomahaftewa and America Meredith, Allan Houser Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

2013
Solo Exhibition, Than Povi, Santa Fe, NM
Octopus Dreams, Air Land and Seed, Group Exhibit, 516 Art Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2012
James T. Bialac Native American art collection, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, Norman, Oklahoma
Native American Art, Works on Paper, Ekaterinburg Museum, Russia
Messengers 2012, Rainmaker Gallery, Bristol England, UK
Moundbuilders: Exploring the Ancient Southeastern Woodlands, two-person show, Ahalenia Studios, Santa Fe, NM
H2OK: A Native Response to Water issues in Oklahoma, Mainsite Contemporary, Norman, OK, and Bacone College, Muskogee, OK

2009-10
Intrigue and Novelty, Native American women’s group traveling Exhibition, Curated by Debra Yepa-Pappan, Chicago, IL

2008
Voices from the Mound: Contemporary Choctaw, Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Curated by Tatiana Lomahaftewa-Singer, Santa Fe, NM

2007
Originals 2007 A Juried & Invitational Exhibition, Honored Artist, New Mexico Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts
Loosely Joined, 2007 New Mexico Artists from the Creative Capital professional development workshop, 516 Arts, Albuquerque, NM
First International Women’s Art Festival, Brewery Arts Centre, Highgate Kendal Cumbria UK

2004-07
Native Views, Artrain USA , A traveling exhibition, 3 years, USA

2003
Art of Community, Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Santa Fe, NM

2002
Now and Then, Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Santa Fe, NM

2001
Cross Border Show Rendezvous Festival, White Mountain Academy of the Arts, Elliot Lake Ontario, Canada

1999
Anticipating the Dawn Contemporary Art by Native American Women, Gardiner Art Gallery, Department of Art, Oklahoma State University Stillwater, OK

1998
Healing Art Contemporary Native American Art, American Psychological Association Washington D.C.

1996-98
River Deep, Mountain High, International traveling exhibit produced by Highland Council Culture and Leisure Services and funded by the Scottish Arts Council Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, Scotland; and venues throughout Scotland and Europe

1995-98
Indian Humor, traveling exhibit produced by the American Indian Contemporary Arts, San Francisco CA., Twelve venues including; The Autry Museum of Western Heritage, Los Angeles, California; University of Minnesota, Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, Minnesota; and the National Museum of the American Indian, New York, NY

1997
Native American Painting: A Work in Progress- Summer Harvest mural commission and exhibition, collaboration with Delia Velasco, Institute of American Indian Arts Museum; Santa Fe, New Mexico
We Are Many, We Are One, University Art Gallery, University of Wisconsin, La Crosse
New Art from Native America, Center Gallery, Elaine Bangone Center, Bucknell University; Lewisburg, Pennsylvania

1996
I Stand in the Center of the Good, Group exhibit in conjunction with publication of book by Lawrence Abbot, American Indian Community House; New York City

1991-96
Shared Visions: Native American Painters and Sculptors in the Twentieth Century.
International traveling exhibit sponsored by the Heard Museum; Phoenix Arizona
National and International venues including: Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa Oklahoma;
National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, New York City; and McDougal Gallery, New Zealand.
Our Land /Ourselves: American Indian Contemporary Artists, traveling exhibition produced by State University of New York, Albany.
Venues included University Galleries throughout the U.S.

Collections
American Indian Historical Society, San Francisco, California
Casino Arizona, At Salt River, Cultural Arts Collection, Phoenix, Arizona
Center for the Arts of Indian America, Washington, D.C. City of Phoenix, Sharing Ancestral Creations, Native American Art Collection
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman
Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona
Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos, New Mexico
Native American Center for the Living Arts, Niagara Falls, New York
United States Department of the Interior, Indian Arts and Crafts Board, Washington, D.C.
University of Lethbridge, Native American Studies Department, Alberta, Canada
Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Awards
2014 First place, Printmaking, Heard Guild Indian Fair and Market, Phoenix, Arizona
2001 First Place, Printmaking, Eiteljorg Indian Market, Indianapolis, Indiana
2000 Merit Award, Twelfth Annual Lawrence Indian Arts Show, Lawrence, Kansas
1997 Best of Division, Mixed Media, Heard Museum Indian Fair and Market; Phoenix, Arizona
1993 2nd Place, Painting, SWAIA Indian Market; Santa Fe, New Mexico
1991 1st Place, Hand pulled Prints, SWAIA Indian Market; Santa Fe, New Mexico
2nd Place, Original Graphics, Museum of Northern Arizona Annual Hopi Artist Show; Flagstaff, Arizona
2nd Place & Honorable Mention, Graphics (Hand pulled Prints) Red Earth Arts Festival; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
1990 3rd Place, Hand pulled Prints, SWAIA Indian Market; Santa Fe, New Mexico
1988 Helen Harden Award for Creative Excellence in Painting and 3rd Place, Hand pulled prints, SWAIA Indian Market; Santa Fe, New Mexico

Fellowships, Appointments, and Other Awards
2012
Visiting Artist, The James T. Bialac Symposium, Making Native American Art, Sam Noble Museum, Norman, Oklahoma
Visiting Artist, 2012 Native American Works on Paper for the Ekaterinburg Musuem, Russia

2007
Honored Artist- Originals 2007 A Juried & Invitational Exhibition
The New Mexico Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts

2005-09 Board Member, Native American Art Studies Association, NAASA

2002
Visiting Artist, Collage Painting, 2002 Split Rock Arts Program, University of Minnesota, Duluth
Visiting Artist, March Madness workshop, Cesar Chavez High School/Heard Museum/ASU West, Phoenix, Arizona

2001 “Power of Art” winner, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Washington, D.C.

2000
Visiting Artist, Emily Carr School of Art; Vancouver BC, Canada
Visiting Artist, Painting through Collage, 2000 Split Rock Arts Program, University of Minnesota, Duluth

1998
Advisory Board Member, Capital Arts Foundation; Santa Fe, New Mexico
Painting Convocation Participant, “The Deep Remembering: The Art and Aesthetics of Southwestern Indian Painting,”
School of American Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico

1997
Lecturer-Museum of Indian Arts and Culture; Santa Fe, New Mexico
Visiting Artist, Printmaking “Imagination Celebration.” Special Weekend for the Hearing Impaired, Sponsored by the Ft. Worth, Inc..,
Ft. Worth, Texas

1996
Visiting Artist, Drawing & Petroglyph studies “Inspired by Nature” Project ’96, sponsored by K.K.W. Buro of Hamburg, Germany
Visiting Artist and Lecturer- Mc Dougal Art Gallery: Christchurch, New Zealand
Lecturer, Contemporary Native Arts- University of South Dakota, Vermilion
Visiting Artist, Printmaking- Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA) Youth Art Camp: Santa Fe, NM

1995
Special Guest Artist- Wananga: Symposium of Contemporary Indigenous
Visual Arts Sponsored by Tewaka Toi Council of Maori and South Pacific Arts, Wellington: Rotorua, Aotearoa/New Zealand
Co-Curator- Institute of American Indian Arts Museum Faculty Triennial Exhibition: Santa Fe, NM

1994
Visiting Artist, Painting, Sponsored by Yavapai College and Arizona State University, Yavapai Art Institute; Prescott, Arizona
Featured Artist-36th Annual Heard Museum Fair and Market; Phoenix, Arizona

Publications
Abbot, Lawrence. I Stand in the Center of the Good: Interviews with Contemporary Native American Artists. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994. Pages 149-159
Archuleta, Margaret, and Rennard Strickland. Shared Visions: Native American Painters and Sculptors in the Twentieth Century. Phoenix: Heard Museum, 1991. Pages 56–94
Bates, Sarah. Indian Humor. San Francisco: American Indian Contemporary Arts, 1995. Pages 60-61.
Breunig, Robert, and Erin Younger. “The Second Biennial Native American Fine Art Invitational.” American Indian Arts Magazine 11 (Spring 1986): p. 61.

Press
2022
Nancy Zastudil, Transcendental Painting Lives on in New Mexico and Beyond, Hyperallergic, February 8​

Press Release
2022 Another World at Richard Levy Gallery