Linda Lomahaftewa facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Linda Lomahaftewa
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Linda Lomahaftewa, 2009
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| Born | 1947 (age 77–78) Phoenix, Arizona, United States
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| Nationality |  Hopi Nation United States of America |
| Education | San Francisco Art Institute (MFA, BFA), Institute of American Indian Arts |
| Known for | Painting, printmaking |
| Awards | Robert Rauschenberg Foundation's Power of Art Award (2001), Honorary doctorate (SFAI) |
Linda Lomahaftewa (born 1947) is a talented Native American artist. She is known for her amazing printmaking and painting. Linda is also an educator who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is a member of the Hopi Tribe and has family from the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.
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Early Life and Education
Linda J. Lomahaftewa was born on July 3, 1947, in Phoenix, Arizona. Her father was Hopi, and her mother was Choctaw. Her parents met at an American Indian boarding school. Linda grew up in Phoenix and Los Angeles, California.
In 1961, she attended a strict mission boarding school. The next year, she moved to the Phoenix Indian School. Then, in 1962, she joined the first class at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
After graduating from IAIA, Linda earned a scholarship. This allowed her to study at the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) in San Francisco, California. She was one of only four students from her group to attend, and the only one to graduate. Linda earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree there. She then continued her studies and received her Master of Fine Arts degree from SFAI in 1971.
Linda Lomahaftewa's Art Style
Linda Lomahaftewa's art often mixes old Native American traditions with modern ideas. She creates abstract landscapes that are very powerful. These paintings are considered some of her best work.
Linda says her art is inspired by being Hopi. She remembers shapes and colors from special ceremonies and the natural landscape. She feels these colors and shapes have a sacred, powerful meaning. This feeling comes through in her artwork.
While she is famous for her printmaking, Linda also creates other types of art. For example, her piece called Ribbon Shirt was part of a big art show. It was a modern ribbon shirt decorated with many medals and ribbons from Native American art shows.
An art writer named Michael Abatemarco saw a show of Linda's work. He noticed that her art often looks like a landscape. She also uses a collage style, combining different images. He saw early works from the 1960s that even included images like the Beatles drummer Ringo Starr. These were mixed with abstract shapes and lines, showing a clear split between earth and sky.
Career and Achievements
Linda Lomahaftewa has shown her art in many group and solo exhibitions. Her work has been displayed at places like the American Indian Contemporary Art gallery in San Francisco and the Heard Museum in Phoenix. It has also been seen at the American Indian Community House in New York City and the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe.
In 1980, her art was part of the National American Indian Women's Art Show. This show was put on by Via Gambaro Gallery, which helped new Native American artists. Linda was also listed in the International Who's Who in 1984.
Her art can be found in many public collections. These include the Heard Museum, the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, and the Millicent Rogers Museum. Her work is also at the US Department of the Interior in Washington, DC, and the Southern Plains Indian Museum in Oklahoma.
Linda started her teaching career at Sonoma State University. She also taught at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1976, she returned to the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA). She taught two-dimensional art there for over forty years before she retired.
Linda once said, "I'm happy that I'm recognized as a Native woman artist. And that I'm still doing work after all this time. A lot of people give up."
In 2020, Linda Lomahaftewa was an Artist-in-Residence at IAIA. She worked in a special studio to stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, she created new art. Many of these pieces were shown in her big exhibition, The Moving Land: 60+ Years of Art by Linda Lomahaftewa, at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in 2021.
One of her new paintings, Healing Prayers for a Pandemic Universe (2020), shows hope. It has swirling lines of yellow, purple, blue, and gold in a night sky. This painting suggests new possibilities for the future. Linda said it made her think about what a prayer would look like – "just things in motion."
Linda Lomahaftewa also took part in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art Pandemic Oral History Project in 2020. This project recorded how artists and others in the art world responded to the global pandemic.
Family Life
Linda has a son named Logan L. Slock. Her daughter, Tatiana Lomahaftewa-Singer, works as a curator at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts. Linda's brother, Dan Lomahaftewa (1951–2005), was also a well-known artist. Her cousins, Roger and Marcus Amerman, are famous Choctaw beadworkers.
Notable Exhibitions
- 2024: Space Makers: Indigenous Expression and a New American Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR
- 2023–24: The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
- 2021: The Moving Land: 60+ Years of Art by Linda Lomahaftewa, IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM
- 2012: Low-Rez: Native American Lowbrow Art, Eggman and Walrus Art Emporium, Santa Fe, NM
Public Collections
