Leroy C. Kewanyama, Hopi Pueblo Artist

Hopi Pueblo artist Leroy Kewanyama made a career of carving Katsina dolls and painting images of Katsina dances. He also made jewelry in the Hopi silver overlay style.

Works by Leroy C. Kewanyama (1922-1997) So Kuva - Morning Star are in the Museum of the American Indian Heye Foundation in New York; Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff; Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe; and in the National Park Service, Department of Interior in Washington, DC. Exhibits of his art have been featured at the Arizona State Museum of the University of Arizona in Tucson; Hastings College Art Center in Hastings, Nebraska; the Museum of the American Indian in New York; the Philbrook Art Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma; and the Peabody Museum at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. These collections and exhibits of his work are testimony to his importance as an early Hopi artist.

Leroy Kewanyama served in the U. S. Navy during World War II. He was born at Shungopavi Village, Second Mesa, on the Hopi Reservation on October 14, 1922. As an adult, he moved to Winslow, Arizona. He was the son of Claude Kewanyama and Fay Kewanyama; bother of Eldon Kewanyama; husband of Elvira Kewanyama (1930-1999); father of eight children, including Filmer Kewanyama (painter).

Reference: Hopi Katsina: 1,600 Artist Biographies by Gregory and Angie Schaaf.

Relative Links: Hopi Pueblo, Eldon Kewanyama, Fine Art - Native American Paintings, Hopi Kachina - Katsina Dolls, Southwest Indian Jewelry