Born in Gallup, New Mexico in 1965, Tony Abeyta has emerged as one of the nations most respected Native American artists in a relatively short time. Extensive training at prestigious educational centers combined with the influence of artistic parents have undoubtedly contributed to his success. Abeyta has trained at such diverse institutions as the Ecole de Beaux Arts in France, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Santa Fe Institute of Fine Arts and the Maryland Institute College of Fine Arts where he earned his BFA degree.

This painter commands an unusually wide array of styles, ranging from traditional figurative Navajo sand paintings to abstract expressionism. Utilizing such diverse mediums as charcoal drawings, oil-and-sand, encaustic and printmaking, Abeyta is constantly exploring, pushing the artistic envelope. In his signature oil-and-sand style, the artist builds the paint into richly textured layers to achieve a sculptural aspect.

Abeyta has exhibited widely including Santa Fe's Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, where he also created a permanent interior mural. Chosen to create the signature image of the National Museum of the American Indian Institution's groundbreaking in Washington, D.C., he also painted the official illustration of this new Smithsonian institution's opening.