My World
Bonnie Gangelhoff, Photos by Jennifer Esperanza
A visit with Tony Abeyta at his studio in Santa Fe, NM
Your studio is right off the plaza in downtown Santa Fe. Do you get a lot of visitors? I don’t encourage it, but I do get a lot of friends coming by. I also keep odd hours and might put in two or three hours at night.What do you like about where you live and work? Santa Fe is a real magnet, drawing young contemporary artists to the Institute of American Indian Arts. There are a lot of students from different tribes working in many mediums—potters, painters, sculptors, musicians—and they stay on in Santa Fe. There is also the historical aspect [of the art scene], from early forms of tribal arts to American modernism. And there’s a strong contemporary base, with places like SITE Santa Fe as well as contemporary galleries, installation pieces, and even performance art.
Describe your studio. I have four different work areas—a place to think and go through books, a place for drawing, a space with good ventilation and a breeze to draw out the oil paint fumes, and my assistant’s space, where she prepares canvases.
What music do you play in the studio? Progressive jazz and rock—John Coltrane and Dave Brubeck. But if I’m tired and winding down, I put on some testosterone hard rock.
How has your work evolved in recent years? My earlier works were more about Native American rituals. But that has changed. I’m making a transition toward the more abstract and contemporary. Now my works are less colorful and more inventive and playful. I think the work has become less self-conscious and more confident. What artists have influenced you? I’ve been influenced by landscapes from the 1930s and ’40s, the school of modernist painters like Kenneth Adams, Andrew Dasburg, Victor Higgins, and John Marin. I’m revisiting that whole ideology of creating stylized, emotional landscapes.
What impresses you about other artists’ works? Expensive frames. No, seriously, I’m impressed by artists like Paul Pletka, who has worked so long at his profession. His work tells a story about him as an artist and the things that have inspired him.
What inspires you? I am a student of art history. I like looking at a lot of different artists—the Flemish painters, New York abstract expressionists, modernists, and artists like Agnes Martin, who had a conviction and philosophy about everything she did. I think that is important. I am inspired by art that really talks about a time and place.
Where can people find you when you are not painting? With my 12-year-old daughter, Margo. I also spend time with my girlfriend, and I travel quite a bit. I was in Europe this past summer. And I spend time in New York and Los Angeles to see what’s going on in the rest of the world.
You are known as a big collector. What do you collect? Traditional Indian School paintings, American regionalist painters, friends’ artworks, WPA, Spanish Colonial, and New Mexican furniture.
What is the one place people would never find you? In front of a television.
Where do you like to take people when they come to visit you in Santa Fe? I’m a food fanatic, so I like to take them to the places I often go for “executive lunches,” places like The Shed and Pasquale’s. And I take them to museums and galleries.
Bonnie Gangelhoff is the senior editor at Southwest Art.
Dossier
Representation
Blue Rain Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.
UPCOMING SHOW
Blue Rain Gallery at the Los Angeles Art Show, Los Angeles, CA, January 20-24.
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