'Fancy Dancer and the Sunset Queen' by Theodore Villa, Santa Barbara, Apache, Laguna, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

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Signed lower right, 'Theodore Villa' (American, 20th century) and painted circa 1985; titled, lower left, 'Cake Walk: Fancy Dancer and … Read more Signed lower right, 'Theodore Villa' (American, 20th century) and painted circa 1985; titled, lower left, 'Cake Walk: Fancy Dancer and the Sunset Queen'.

Born in Santa Barbara of White Mountain Apache (Coyotero) and Spanish ancestry, Theodore Villa was raised by his maternal grandmother. He studied at the University of California at Santa Barbara, where he was first awarded a Bachelors and, subsequently, a Masters in Fine Arts. Villa's grandmother’s stories and legends remain primary sources from which the artist harvests inspiration for his work. Rendered in vibrant washes, his compositions reverberate with echoes from his tribal spirit past while delivering the artist's message in dynamic, contemporary terms. Throughout his work, Villa maintains a tactile quality that is expressed in surfaces and textures; his beads reflect a shiny brilliance, his buckskin has the feel of genuine hand-tanned leather, his fur shows a characteristic glossy sheen and his feathers always reward closer inspection. In contrast to most static museum displays, the work of Theodore Villa consistently expresses life, motion and humor.

Since the mid 1960s, Theodore Villa has exhibited widely and with success and his works have been featured in numerous one-man shows and group exhibitions as well as in museums throughout the United States and Europe.

Partial List of Exhibitions:
Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, AZ
Kimball Art Center, Park City, UT
Centro Washington Irving, Madrid, Spain
The Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ
Center of Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA
Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos, NM.
Native American Rights Exhibition (National Tour)
Arizona Commission on the Arts, (National Tour)
Institute of American Indian Art, Santa Fe, NM
Taylor Museum, Colorado Springs Fine Art Center, Colorado Springs
COMuseum of the Rockies, Bozeman, MT
American Indian Contemporary Art Gallery, San Francisco, CA (European Tour)
Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
Palais De nations, Geneva, Switzerland
Willamette University, Salem, Oregon
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK (National & Canadian Tour)
Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Sun Valley, ID
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, LA, CA
Purdue University Gallery, West Lafayette, IN
Newport Harbor Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA
Palm Springs Museum of Art, Palm Springs, CA
Minneapolis Museum of Art, Minneapolis, MN -(DRAWINGS U.S.A.)
Laguna Beach Museum of Art, Laguna Beach, CA
San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA
Occidental College, Eagle Rock, CA
National Watercolor Society, LA, CA (National Tour)
Cal State University, LA, CA
St Mary’s College, LA, CA
University of California, Santa Barbara., CA

(Biography and research courtesy of Broschofsky Galleries) See less