Artist's Bio
The cenotaph, and Ceremonial Space (dedicated in 2009)
Artist: Bob Haozous
Commissioning Agency: City of Tampa, Seminole Tribe of Florida
Location: On the Riverwalk in Cotanchobee / Fort Brooke Park
Bob
Haozous was born in Los Angeles, California in 1943 and spent some
of his early years in Apache, Oklahoma. From ages 9 through 19 he
lived in Brigham City, Utah where his father Allan Houser and his
mother Ann Houser were employed at The Intermountain Indian School,
a boarding school for Navajo children. He attended Utah State
University in Logan, Utah for 1 1/2 years before he enlisted in the
US Navy. He served 4 years on board the Destroyer USS Frank Knox,
home-ported in Yokosuka, Japan, and deployed in the south pacific
during the Vietnam war escalation period. Upon discharge he enrolled
in the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California,
receiving his Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree in Sculpture in 1971.He
has resided and worked professionally as an artist in Santa Fe, New
Mexico since then. He is a member of the Warm Springs Chiricahua
Apache Tribe of Oklahoma, located in Apache, Oklahoma.
Haozous works in a variety of materials in the production of his
artistic statement. These include wood, stone, aluminum, steel, and
is now designing artwork in titanium. He also produces drawings,
paintings and photographs, which he usually combines with his three
dimensional images. On occasion he also produces jewelry, and
sometimes produces small editions of monotypes and block-prints. His
continual themes have been Native American cultural relationships
and their interaction with the environment. Indigenous issues are
the basis of his statement and are seriously portrayed with a
combination of biting humor and direct honestly.
From 1971 until 1991 Haozous participated in the Annual Indian
Market in Santa Fe, New Mexico, winning numerous awards, including a
shared Best of Show. The museum collections that include his work
are: The Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, The Philbrook Museum in
Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles,
California. Several of New Mexico's museums also have collected his
works, including: The Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, The Museum of
Indian art and Culture in Santa Fe, The Wheelwright Museum in Santa
Fe, The Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, The Institute of American
Indian Arts in Santa Fe, and The Roswell Museum and Art Center in
Roswell.
Haozous' work is in the international collections of The Westphalian
State Museum of Natural History in Munster, The Dresdner Bank
Collection of Stuttgart, and The Museum fuer Weltkulturen in
Frankfurt. In Norway his work is in the collection of The Trondheim
Sjofartsmuseum in Trondheim. National and International recognition
for Haozous as an important American Artist is reflected in his many
residencies and commissions. The cities of Philadelphia, Tulsa,
Albuquerque, Phoenix, San Diego and Seattle all boast major Haozous
installations. He has also been in two major film projects. In l992
Norwegian Public Broadcasting (NRK) produced a film entitled "The
Search for Mangas Coloradas" featuring Haozous as central character
and consultant. In 1993 Chloe Productions produced a video on
Haozous called “Bob Haozous-American artist”. In 1999 Bob Haozous
was selected with eight other contemporary Native American Artists
to participate in the exhibition 'CEREMONIAL' at The 1999 Venice
Biennale in Venice, Italy. In 2001 Haozous served as advisor and
participant in the Native American exhibition 'UMBILICUS' at the
2001 Venice Biennale, in Venice, Italy.
The National Museum of the American Indian's inaugural exhibit
"Shared Visions" In Washington, DC selected Haozous' sculpture
"Apache Pull Toy" as the 1003 exhibition image. His "Border
Crossing" was featured in the Socrates Park Sculpture Garden in New
York in 1995.Haozous was recently selected from a national
competition to produce a major work for the new Seattle Seahawk
Stadium in Seattle, Washington for the opening in August, 2002.The
Haozous artwork "Cultural Crossroads of the Americas" has become a
hallmark of cultural censorship in a legal dispute with the
University of New Mexico and with the State of New México. The
issues at stake were contract interpretation and the creative rights
and responsibilities of artists under contract. This dispute was
settled with the censorship of this public work in June, 2000.This
now censored artwork can be seen on the campus of The University of
New Mexico, located in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
In the year 2000 Haozous recently participated in the exhibition
"Who Stole the Tee Pee" as artist and symposium participant at the
Customs House (George Gustav Heye Center) sponsored by The National
Museum of the American Indian-Smithsonian Institution in New York
City. He also exhibited with Mescalero Apache Artist Oliver Enjady
in "Two artists, Two Visions' at the Roswell Museum and Art Center
in Roswell, New Mexico.
www.bobhaozous.com
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Bob
Haozous was born in Los Angeles, California in 1943 and spent some
of his early years in Apache, Oklahoma. From ages 9 through 19 he
lived in Brigham City, Utah where his father Allan Houser and his
mother Ann Houser were employed at The Intermountain Indian School,
a boarding school for Navajo children. He attended Utah State
University in Logan, Utah for 1 1/2 years before he enlisted in the
US Navy. He served 4 years on board the Destroyer USS Frank Knox,
home-ported in Yokosuka, Japan, and deployed in the south pacific
during the Vietnam war escalation period. Upon discharge he enrolled
in the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California,
receiving his Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree in Sculpture in 1971.He
has resided and worked professionally as an artist in Santa Fe, New
Mexico since then. He is a member of the Warm Springs Chiricahua
Apache Tribe of Oklahoma, located in Apache, Oklahoma.