Norbert Peshlakai
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Art Work
| Name: |
Norbert Peshlakai |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
Fort Defiance, Arizona |
| Nationality: |
American Indian/Navajo |
| Birth: |
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| Death: |
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| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
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| Medium: |
Silver |
| Method: |
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| Style: |
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| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Jewelry
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Biography
Born at Fort Defiance, Arizona, Norbert Peshlakai received his elementary school education on the Navajo reservation. After graduating from high school in Albuquerque, the young man studied painting at Haskell Junior College for Native Americans in Kansas with the goal of becoming an art teacher. However, as they say, “life is what happens when you’re busy making plans.”
Peshlakai dropped painting in favor of jewelry and eventually, taking the silversmith techniques he learned making jewelry, created his first silver pot. Interestingly enough, the challenge of making that pot dramatically changed the direction of his jewelry making - he became fascinated with the artistic possibilities inherent in hammering and stamp work!
As a result of all this cross-discipline “pollination”, Peshlakai has emerged as one of the nation’s truly gifted silversmiths. (He certainly lives up to his surname; peshlakai means “silver” in Navajo.) “Silver is Peshlakai’s medium, and with his unusual vision and talent he fashions it into some of the original art objects in the Southwest,” says Martha Hopkins Struever in Indian Artist.
The artistic achievements of Peshlakai are reflected by his many awards. Receiving his first blue ribbon at his first Santa Fe Indian Market in 1979, he has gone on to receive countless others. Not to mention many distinguished honors. At a prestigious 1984 exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, this Navajo silversmith was the only living artist honored. |
Samples of Work
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