Lorenzo Clayton is a contemporary

Navajo The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...

sculptor,

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed technique ...

, conceptual and installation artist. His artwork is notable for exploring the concepts of spirituality through abstraction.

Background

Lorenzo Clayton was born and raised on the Tohajiilee Indian Reservation. Moving to New York City in 1973 Clayton earned his

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students pursuing a professional education in the visual arts, Fine art, or performing arts. In some instances, it is also called a Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA). Background ...

from

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as Cooper Union, is a private college on Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-s ...

in 1977. Between graduation and his teaching career he worked in the printing industry, then, in 1993, he was named assistant professor at Cooper Union and has also served as lithography instructor at

Parsons The New School for Design The Parsons School of Design is a private art and design college under The New School located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhattan art ...

Clayton is a professor in the

printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proces ...

department at Cooper Union.

Artistic career

Spiritual exploration

Clayton's artwork is heavily influenced by the search for the spiritual, which he believes is seen throughout Indigenous cultures around the world. Through exploration of the

ontological Ontology is the philosophical study of being. It is traditionally understood as the subdiscipline of metaphysics focused on the most general features of reality. As one of the most fundamental concepts, being encompasses all of reality and every ...

Clayton makes an effort for spiritual nourishment. In the 1986–1995 series ''Richard's Third Hand'' Clayton explored his own spirituality through his love for abstraction and assemblage. The series ''Come Across'' (1994–2000) had Clayton blending both Christianity and

spirituality to explore a personal loss of self. This artistic and spiritual exploration shows the journey Clayton made to reconnect with his Navajo identity. In 2006 Clayton exhibited his "mythistoryquest" installations at the

National Museum of the American Indian The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers. The museum has three ...

, New York. The exhibition, titled "Expeditions of the Spirits", featured installation and paperworks, examining the parallels between Christianity and Indigenous religions.

Collaborations

Collaborations with other artists and creators remain an imperative part of Clayton's career. In 2004 Clayton began working with fellow Cooper Union professor and engineer George Sidebotham on a series called ''Inner Equations''. With a mission to use

scientific method The scientific method is an Empirical evidence, empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has been referred to while doing science since at least the 17th century. Historically, it was developed through the centuries from the ancient and ...

to explore

irrational Irrationality is cognition, thinking, talking, or acting without rationality. Irrationality often has a negative connotation, as thinking and actions that are less useful or more illogical than other more rational alternatives. The concept of ...

thoughts and ideas, the two used Sidebotham's knowledge of mathematical formulae to attempt to explain spiritual growth and relationships. Originally installed at the Jersey City Museum and then the

Heard Museum The Heard Museum is a private, not-for-profit museum in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, dedicated to the advancement of American Indian art. It presents the stories of American Indian people from a first-person perspective, as well as exhibitio ...

, the installation featured a series of

chalkboard A blackboard or a chalkboard is a reusable writing surface on which text or drawings are made with sticks of calcium sulphate or calcium carbonate, better known as chalk. Blackboards were originally made of smooth, thin sheets of black or da ...

s mounted on opposing walls, one side of the room is painted white, the other side is painted black, to represent positive and negative. The chalkboards have diagrams and scribblings all over them, reminiscent of the chalkboard works of Cy Twombly. The writings, diagrams, and equations show the benefits of good and bad relationships on a person. Clayton also displayed the journal he kept during the creation of the artwork. In 2009 Clayton collaborated with filmmaker and sound engineer

Jacob Burckhardt Carl Jacob Christoph Burckhardt (; ; 25 May 1818 – 8 August 1897) was a Swiss historian of art and culture and an influential figure in the historiography of both fields. His best known work is '' The Civilization of the Renaissance in ...

to create ''Current'', a 3-minute

video installation Video installation is a contemporary art form that combines video technology with installation art, making use of all aspects of the surrounding environment to affect the audience. Tracing its origins to the birth of video art in the 1970s, it has ...

as part of

Wave Hill Wave Hill is a estate in the Hudson Hill, Bronx, Hudson Hill section of Riverdale, Bronx, Riverdale in the Bronx, New York City. Wave Hill currently consists of public horticultural gardens and a cultural center, all situated on the slopes ov ...

's exhibition "The Muhheakantuck in Focus". Muhheakantuck is a

Lenape The Lenape (, , ; ), also called the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. The Lenape's historica ...

word meaning "the river that flows both ways" and was the original name for the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

. The group exhibition featured work by contemporary artists from North and Central America creating artworks about the effects of

Henry Hudson Henry Hudson ( 1565 – disappeared 23 June 1611) was an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada and parts of the Northeastern United States. In 1607 and 16 ...

's contact with Indigenous people. Burckhardt and Clayton created an interpretation of that literal meaning creating a video displaying the river moving in different directions and flows. It represents metaphorically the ongoing changes and history of the river, "suggesting that the contact between Henry Hudson's Dutch expedition and the Lenape people was a pivotal point in time in the continuum of this force of nature."

Major collections

Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art is an art museum in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The Eiteljorg houses an extensive collection of visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas as well as Western Ame ...

, Phoenix, AZ * Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ *

Morris Museum Actively running since 1913, the Morris Museum is the second-largest museum in New Jersey at . The museum is fully accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. Museum history 1913–1957: early years The Morris Children's Museum was found ...

, Morristown, NJ *

Museum of Northern Arizona The Museum of Northern Arizona is a museum in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States, established as a repository for Indigenous material and natural history specimens from the Colorado Plateau. The museum was founded in 1928 by zoologist Dr. Harol ...

, Flagstaff, AZ *

, Washington, DC * Newark Museum, Newark, NJ *

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

, Tucson, AZ.

Notable exhibitions

*''IN/SIGHT'', 2010, Chelsea Art Museum *''The Muhheakantuck in Focus'', 2009,

, New York City *''Relevant: Reflection-Reformation-Revival: Rethinking Contemporary Native American Art'', 2009, Nathan Cummings Foundation, New York City *''The Importance of In/Visibility: Recent Work by Native American Artists Living in New York City'', 2009, Abrazo Interno Gallery *''Native Voices'', 2008, The Brooklyn Campus of Long Island University, Brooklyn, New York *''New Tribe'', 2006, National Museum of the American Indian, New York City *''Moment by Moment: Mediation For The Hand'', 2006,

North Dakota Museum of Art The North Dakota Museum of Art (NDMOA) is the official art museum of the American state of North Dakota. Located on the campus of the University of North Dakota, in Grand Forks, North Dakota, the museum is a private not-for-profit institution. ...

, Grand Forks, North Dakota *''Paumanok'', 2006,

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...

, Stony Brook, New York *''Inner Equations'', 2006, Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona *''Who Stole the TeePee?'' 2000, National Museum of the American Indian, traveling *'' Osaka Triennale'', 1994, Japan *''The New Native American Aesthetic'', 1984,

California State University The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a Public university, public university system in California, and the List of largest universities and university networks by enrollment, largest public university system in the United States ...

, Carsan, California *''No Trinkets, No Beads'', 1984, Palace of Nations, Geneva, Switzerland As well as exhibitions at various private galleries and other museums such as the Morris Museum,

Museum of the Rockies Museum of the Rockies is a museum in Bozeman, Montana. Originally affiliated with Montana State University - Bozeman, Montana State University in Bozeman, and now also, the Smithsonian Institution. The museum is largely known for its Paleontology, ...

Seattle Center The Seattle Center is an entertainment, education, tourism and performing arts center located in the Lower Queen Anne, Seattle, Lower Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. Constructed for the Century 21 Exposition, 1962 W ...

, Pratt Manhattan and others.

Major awards

*''Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art'', 1999, Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art *''Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award'', 1986,

Pollock-Krasner Foundation The Pollock-Krasner Foundation was established in 1985 for the purpose of providing funding to visual artists internationally to further their artistic practices. It was established at the bequest of Lee Krasner, who was an American abstract expr ...

*''New Jersey State Council on the Arts Grant'', 1983, New Jersey State Council on the Arts *''Artist-in-Residence'', 1982,

Museum of the American Indian The National Museum of the American Indian–New York, the George Gustav Heye Center, is a branch of the National Museum of the American Indian at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in Manhattan, New York City. The museum is part of the Sm ...

References

External links

Lorenzo Clayton
Native American Artist Roster of AMERINDA Inc.
Lorenzo Clayton
Vision Project, by Shanna Ketchum-Heap of Birds

at the Peiper-Riegraf Collection

from the NMAI's "Who Stole the TeePee?" exhibition.
"Native New Yorkers: Vision Quest"
''Maverick Arts Magazine'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Clayton, Lorenzo Navajo artists Contemporary sculptors Modern printmakers Cooper Union faculty Cooper Union alumni Sculptors from New Mexico Native American installation artists Native American conceptual artists Native American printmakers Native American sculptors 1950 births Living people Artists from New York City Sculptors from New York (state)