Dan V. Lomahaftewa "Animal Ancestors I" monotype, 35" x 30" 1993
From when I was very young, it seems as though I was surrounded by expressions of beauty. As far back as I can remember, there were colourful and intricately designed baskets, pottery, rattles, bows and arrows, weavings, beadwork, and katsina doll carvings, accenting all the households of my family. In addition, there were both ceremonial and social dancing and singing going on around me with an abundance of colourful regalia in which my family and I participate still.
I was lucky to have experienced all this exposure to expression which I feel has helped me to develop an appreciation for the beauty and aesthetics of my people. The search for my own expression brought me to look at what had always influenced me and many other Native Americans, that being the inseperable interweaving of the lifeway of Indian people and their spirituality. This component of Native American expression was, and to some extent still is, incorporated into all the different mediums of expression represented by form and symbol.
What I'm trying to create are images of my own interpretation of these symbolic representations of Native Americans.
Born: 1951, Phoenix, Arizona
Lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Education: Arizona State University, Tempe, B.F.A.
Selected recent exhibits:
1995 Dan Viets Lomahaftewa, one-person exhibit, Rainmaker Gallery, Manchester, England.
Dan V. Lomahaftewa, Copeland Rutherford Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
One Moment in Time, two-person exhibit, First Peoples Gallery, New York, New York.
Quintana, two-person exhibit, Quintana Galleries, Portland, Oregon.
Dan V. Lomahaftewa, Amer-Indian Gallery East, Reading, Pennsylvania.
1994 New Art of the West, Fourth Eiteljorg Museum Invitational, Indianapolis, Indiana.
Green Art, solo exhibit, Rainmaker Gallery, Manchester, England, funded in part
with a Travel Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
New Spring Rain, solo exhibit, First Peoples Gallery, New York, New York.
1993 The Spirit of North America, international traveling exhibit, organized by
American Indian Contemporary Arts, funded by United States Information Agency/Arts America Program.
1992 From the Earth VIII, American Indian Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, California.
1991 Our Land/Ourselves, traveling exhibit, organized by University Art Gallery,
State University of New York College, Albany, New York.