
Staff Reports | Happenings & Events
Scottsdale Ferrari Art Week Fair announces that Diné artist, dealer, curator and Antiques Roadshow Appraiser — Tony Abeyta — will curate a special exhibition, “Desert Modernism,” which will show the convergence and progression of Phoenix artists of Native, Anglo and Hispanic descent, from approximately 1930-1980.
The exhibition will feature rare and hard-to-find works by artists, architects and designers such as Fritz Scholder, Charles Loloma, Lloyd Kiva New, Frank Lloyd Wright, Phillip Curtis and Paolo Soleri, according to a press release.
Mr. Abeyta is also serving as an Advisory Committee member for the fair, the release states.
The Scottsdale Ferrari Art Week Fair is a unique event at the historical and cultural crossroads of the American Southwest. Set in one of the country’s fastest-growing cities with an ascendent contemporary Indigenous culture, the fair will showcase over a hundred leading international galleries at Westworld, March 20-23, 2025.
“We are absolutely thrilled to have Tony participate in Scottsdale Art Week,” says Trey Brennen, co-owner of the inaugural fair.
“We are set to become the leading art fair in the West and that requires a strong Indigenous representation among our dealers and curators. Tony approaches art and art history with a deep understanding of the region and the contemporary work being produced at this moment. He has worked at many of the major museums in the area and has a wonderful reputation across the Southwest.”
As a curator, Mr. Abeyta co-organized the exhibition New Terrains: Contemporary Native Art which was held at Phillips Auctions January 5-23, 2024.
“This has given me a chance to do a deep dive into one of my favorite subjects, the evolution of Modernism through the disparate art communities that converged in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area in the middle portions of the twentieth century,” Mr. Abeyta said. “I’ve long been fascinated by the work Native artists were doing in the area and I want to show how they worked, showed and created alongside great artists such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Phillip Curtis and Paolo Soleri.”
The watershed selling exhibition explored the influences of modernism, post-war and pop influences on work by 50 contemporary Indigenous artists including Fritz Scholder, Preston Singletary, TC Cannon, Cara Romero, Diego Romero, Jaune Quick-to-See-Smith, Virgil Ortiz, Jamie Okuma, Kent Monkman, Michael Kabotie, Oscar Howe, Allan Houser, Cannupa Hanska Luger and others.
Mr. Abeyta is represented by Owings Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.