Portrait of Charles Loloma

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Charles Loloma

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Charles Loloma
1921-1991

Charles Loloma, a Hopi from Hotevilla, is considered a master contemporary Native American artist and is best known for his tufacast and mosaic inlay jewelry. His early bold styles and nontraditional use of materials created a bridge between traditional Hopi art and the world of modern art.

Loloma's artistic influences began at home early with his parents - his father was a weaver and his mother a basket maker. He began studing painting in high school and in 1939 he was commisioned to create murals for the federal building in San Francisco. From 1941 to 1945, he served in the army as a noncombat camouflage expert. After WWII under the GI bill, he studied ceramics at the School of American Craftsmen at Alfred University in New York. He returned to Arizona and sold his ceramics at the Kiva Crafts Center in Scottsdale from 1954 to 1962. In the mid-1950s Loloma first began experimenting with jewelry and tufa casting. Loloma then moved to Santa Fe where he was hired to head the Plastic Arts and Sales departments of the newly founded Institute for American Indian Art. In 1965 he returned home to Hotevilla to work on his own art and built a studio where he would live and work.