Shortly after high school, Tony discovered his passion for glassworks, a fiery art that is a radical departure from the traditions of his people but also a return to his past. As you’ll see in his August 14th show, the works themselves reflect this duality by telling old stories in brilliant new ways.

Tony spent his childhood living mostly with his grandparents in Isleta Pueblo, NM. He would hunt and fish on the 155-acre reservation and help his grandfather work in his studio.

Tony’s grandpa was something of a Pueblo Indian Renaissance man. In the early 1920′s when electricity was scarce, he insisted on having power for his silversmith shop. He was also a woodcarver, a beekeeper and, by the time Tony knew him, a bit of a grouch.

“He was a very stern, very strict man,” says Tony. He would sit in his grandfather’s studio turning the blower on the forge while the man hammered away.

After high school, Tony had to choose his own artistic path. He was headed to the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), and had already ruled out being a potter or a jeweler.

When Tony finally landed on glassworks, it seemed a little peculiar at first. Clay is the medium of the Pueblo Indians, and molten glass can’t even be molded by human hands. Perhaps he’d caught the glass bug in the heat of his grandpa’s forge.

With this out-of-the-box new medium came an equally eye-opening education.

“It was all about the arts from a Native perspective,” he says. “Even art history was history from a Native’s point of view. We learned a lot of things that you don’t learn in public schools.”

After finishing at IAIA, Tony got a scholarship to attend the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine and then studied and taught at the Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle, Washington. In Seattle he worked with and befriended renowned glass master Dale Chihuly, but he never let the history he learned at IAIA or the stories he was told by his family stray too far from his mind.

Tony returned to New Mexico in 1981. He’s been telling the stories of his people through glass ever since.

“What I’m doing I give up for those who went before me,” he says. “If it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t be here.”

He sees his art as a cultural bridge from his ancestors to future generations. All of his pieces use traditional forms or motifs: vessels shaped like ollas and seed jars, sculptures of animals like thunderbirds, dragonflies and water serpents.

“It’s giving the stories a longer life,” says Tony Jojola. “Glass breakdown is like 10,000 years.”

Perhaps most telling is what’s on the surface of the glass. Tony honors his grandfather by using his father’s silver jewelry stamps on some of his glass vessels. He might be a high school dropout, but Tony is definitely a family man—and a glass master.

Tony Jojola’s glassworks exhibition runs from August 14th to August 27th. Join us on Friday, August 17th for a reception from 5pm- 7pm.

If purchasing a piece off the blog, mention that you found the piece on the blog and get a special discount!

 

Among Tony Jojola’s many creations is a little sculpture of a bear that sits among some gnarly rocks. Only when you glimpse the title—or the protruding wrist joint—do you realize that the spindly stones are fingers and the animal is nestled in a palm. The piece is called “In Grandfather’s Hand” and it tells the tale of Tony himself.

The artist is a Pueblo Indian who grew up in Isleta Pueblo, New Mexico. His grandfather was a woodcarver, silversmith and beekeeper, a “man of many talents.” The legends and symbols of Tony’s people came alive in his grandpa’s work and inspired him to create things of his own.

“Crafts were a part of my family heritage,” says Tony. “I tried making pottery and jewelry. Nothing really grabbed me.” Then he found a medium that bare hands could never manipulate. Only fire can sculpt glass—it’s “the clay that can’t be touched.”

That was thirty years ago. Tony discovered his passion for the “molten medium” at the Institute of American Indian Arts, and later attended art schools in Maine and Seattle. He apprenticed with legendary glass artist Dale Chihuly while he was in the Northwest and became a member of his team.

Along the way, Tony learned and developed many techniques for creating glass sculptures: sandblasting, electroforming, Graal and casting. He has also worked with metal casting. Through it all, he’s followed a calling to tell the stories of his culture through traditional colors, forms and motifs. This is the knowledge that sprang from his grandfather’s hands.

New glassworks by Tony Jojola will be at Waxlander from August 14th to 27th, starting the weekend of the Santa Fe Indian Market. Join us on Friday, August 17th for a reception from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

 If purchasing a piece off the blog, mention that you found the piece on the blog and get a special discount!

The 3rd Annual Waxlander Gallery Art Auction is in full swing! The auction runs through next Saturday, February 4th with bidding coming to a close at 4:00 p.m. MST.

With the first two installments of the event available just to Waxlander collectors, we have opened this year’s event to all bidders to allow as many people possible the opportunity to add beautiful pieces of art to their collections. With the works set at the lowest prices of the year, it is a great chance for you to add them to your home or office at a great value.

There are close to 200 pieces up for auction this year featuring the work of many of our artists. We are very happy that this year’s participating artists includes many who have been with us for some time, such as Bruce King, Matthew Higginbotham, and Andree Hudson. We are also very pleased that some of our newest artists, including Christopher Owen Nelson and Phyllis Randall, are taking part as well!

Here is a full list of the participating artists: Lori Faye Bock, Childers-West, Jim Cohen, Paul Cunningham, Suzanne Donazetti, Michael Ethridge, Georgia Gerber, Sandy Graves, Higginbotham, Walter Horak, Hudson, Tony Jojola, King, Ana Lazovsky, Bernard Marks, Sharon Markwardt, Nelson, Marshall Noice, Sangita Phadke, Richard Pankratz, Linda Prokop, Randall, Slava TCH, Jono Tew, Chris Turri.

Additionally, we are happy to announce that special works from artist and gallery owner Phyllis Kapps’ personal collection will also be available!

A few tidbits about the bidding process: The opening bid for paintings has been set at 40% off the retail price. For sculptures, the opening bids have been marked at 25% off. If the opening bid for a piece has started at less than $1,000, then the bids increase in $50 increments. With pieces starting at $1,000 or more, the bidding increases in increments of $100. If there is a piece you absolutely must have and you do not want to take the chance of losing it to another bidder, you can purchase it at our ‘Buy It Now’ price which is set at 10% off retail.

For information on the artists and which of their pieces are available, please visit their artist page at http://www.waxlander.com/artists-santa-fe-art-gallery. Auction Items will be marked in red and will be the first images on each of the participating artists’ page.

For questions on the auction you can call the gallery at 505-984-2202 or email us at art@waxlander.com. To make a bid, the same telephone number and email address apply. The winning bidders for each piece will be notified by phone following the conclusion of the event.

Once again, we are very excited for this year’s auction. It gives us great joy to be able to offer so many great pieces and such great prices.

Happy bidding!!

 

Résumé for Tony Jojola

Education

Lino Tagliapietra Workshop, Marseille, France (1991)

Pilchuck Glass School, Seattle, WA (1978, 1980-1981, 1985, 1986)

College of Santa Fe, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM (1983)

Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM (1978)

Haystack Mountain School of Glass, Associate of Arts, Deer Isle, ME (1977)

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Albuquerque Museum of Fine Arts, Albuquerque, NM

Contemporary Museum of Fine Art, Helsinki, Finland

Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO

Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ

Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM

SELECTED ARTICLES/PUBLICATIONS

Art-Talk. 1999. Tony Jojola. Art-Talk, 18, no. 9: 16

Bird, Gail. 1988. Anthony Jojola. Indian Market Magazine, August

Campbell, Virginia. 2004. Fired Up. Southwest Art 34, no. 3: 179-81, 212.

Carmichael, Suzanne. 1990. Tony Jojola. The Traveler’s Guide to American Crafts. New

York: Dutton

Clark, Virginia. 2008. Award artist Tony Jojola: Bear Energy: Protection, Wisdom, Strength. Taos

News, 16 October

Elder, Nina. 2003. The Art of Glass: Tony Jojola Shapes the Future. New Mexico Journey Jan/Feb:

18-21.

Fleming, Jeanie Puleston. 1988. SWAIA Fellowships. Indian Market SWAIA Magazine: 63-65.

Franklin, Rogayle. 2003. Refined by Fire. Enchantment (New Mexico), September.

Haas, Nicole. 2006. Fusing Tradition and Innovation: Signature Artists Lonewolf and Jojola. Native

Peoples, Heard Fair Program, 20-21.

Heard Museum. 2004. Linking the Past to Today. Heard Museum Exhibits 1, no. 2: 4.

Hice, Michael. 2000. Artists of Change: Breaking Through the Millennium. Native Peoples 13, no. 2:

54-59.

Indyke, Dottie. 2004. Getting Stronger and More Diverse. ARTnews 103, no. 7: 102-05.

Linthicum, Leslie. 1998. Images in Glass. The Sunday Journal North, New Mexico, 25 October.

Kastner, Carolyn, ed. 2002. Fusing Traditions: Transformations in Glass by Native American Artists.

San Francisco: Museum of Craft & Folk Art.

McFaden, D.R. 2002. Changing Hands: A Major Native American Art Exhibit at the American Craft

Museum. Southwest Art 32: 156-67, 250-62.

McGraw, Kate. 1986. What have these fellows done? SFR Artists of the Sun, 31-33.

Nichols, Judy. 2005. Native American Voices are Heard. Arizona Republic, 15 May.

Raether, Keith. 1999. Through a Glass Brightly: New Tradition of Transparent Artwork Dawns at

Taos Pueblo. Native Peoples 12, no. 3: 26-32.

Romancito, Rick. 2004. Red Hot: The Art of Tony Jojola. Indian Market August: 166-67.

Silberman, Robert. 1990. Will Success Spoil the Glass Art Society? American Craft 50: 60-69.

Tall Chief, Russ. 2006. Splendor in Glass: Masters of New Media. Native Peoples, 19, no. 4: 26-32.

Villani, John, 1991. A new generation breaks from tradition. New Mexico Magazine, 69, no. 8: 74-5.

Waxlander Gallery and Sculpture Garden is proud to exhibit the glass works of Tony Jojola.  For finished images of Tony’s work, please visit his page at

http://www.waxlander.com/artist/49/Tony-Jojola!

“After thirty years of being involved with the molten medium, and coming from a potter’s background and being Pueblo Indian, I look at glass as clay that can’t be touched. Like clay, anything can be made from glass.  Some of my biggest influences stem from watching my grandfather, a silversmith who loved to work with gold filigree.  He was also a wood carver and beekeeper.  He was a man of many talents.  The Pilchuck Glass School also heavily influenced me, where I worked many summers and falls, and was involved with many internationally known artists.

Over the years, I’ve developed several techniques for creating designs on glass: sandblasting, electroforming, graal, casting. Sandblasting is a way to get images to form. Electroforming is a technique that adheres metal to glass. The Graal technique is an overlay process developed in Sweden, through which a design appears inside the glass. Casting is a way to incorporate motifs that are symbolic to my culture. I also like to draw on the piece using very thin colored glass threads and a hot torch. All of the work is about color. I’ve always been very interested in color, so many of my pieces are color studies.

Working with the molten medium demands team effort, and that is how I work. I have found that the team method is the best way to get from idea to paper to reality. I work with no less than three highly skilled craftsmen because there is so much involved in the process to getting things done at the precise time.

My culture provides me with such endless inspiration, that I know I will never be able to create all of what is in my mind. Every piece is different. There may be a few that are similar in form but different in color and design and technique. In most cases, they are different in a variety of ways so that each piece is a unique work of art.”

Tony Jojola is one of a handful of Native American glass blowers. Jojola was born in Isleta Pueblo in New Mexico. He began working as a potter at an early age. He has become one of today’s premier hot-blown glass artists in the nation, and his reputation extends internationally.

As a boy, Jojola practiced pottery, but was also drawn to the work that his grandfather did as a silversmith and woodcarver: “Crafts were a part of my family heritage, and I tried making pottery and jewelry. Nothing really grabbed me until I discovered glass.” Tony honors his grandfather by using some of his father’s silver jewelry stamps on several of his glass vessels.

Tony attended the Institute of American Indian Arts, where he immediately fell in love with the fluidity and permanence of molten glass. He received a scholarship to the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine, where he eventually became artist-in-residence. He then went on to study at the Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle, Washington, where he apprenticed with Dale Chihuly, master of American glass art, and was later to become a member of Chihuly’s famed team of glass artists.

Tony enjoys working with young artists, so in 1999, he established the Taos Glass Workshop in Northern New Mexico. There, he has been able to give back to his community by training at-risk youth in a viable and fulfilling skill. Since 2001, Tony’s glass bears have been presented to recipients of the Unsung Heroes and Citizens of the Year awards, held annually in Taos. In 2005, Jojola and ceramic artist Rosemary Lonewolf completed a 30-foot permanent installation for the Heard Museum titled “Indigenous Evolution,” an art fence which Jojola states is about “going through boundaries, symbolizing how strong our culture is, how persistent our existence.”

Jojola’s art is distinguished by the incorporation of his Native American heritage. Vessels follow traditional forms, including ollas, seed jars, and baskets. He uses motifs that are important to Pueblo culture: thunderbirds, dragonflies, and water serpents. Each piece is hand-blown with skill to emphasize the glass vessel’s brilliant color and luminosity.

Fellowships and exhibits have honored Tony Jojola’s work across the United States and Europe. His work has been exhibited in the Wheelwright Museum, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Heard Museum, and the Burke Museum, to name a few. His work has also been acquired for many private and public collections.