Karita Coffey, born in 1947, is a Native American artist who creates ceramic sculptures that reference traditional indigenous objects. Karita Coffey is well-known for producing ceramic replicas and sculptures that reference traditional indigenous artifacts and designs. Karita supports Native artists by teaching ceramics in the state of New Mexico.
Karita Coffey’s Facts
The Comanche ceramist (Comanche Nation) Karita Coffey (born 1947) is most known for her ceramic replicas (producing ceramic versions) of cultural objects and items from her tribe, which she produces alongside ceramic vessels. She also has experience in lost-wax cast metals.
‘Tsat-Tah Mo-oh Kahn’ was Karita Coffey’s Comanche given name, which translates as ‘Good-Handed’ in English. Coffey grew up in Lawton, Oklahoma, and attended the Institute of American Indian Arts when it was still a high school, where she received her creative instruction.
Education: She studied ceramics at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe when she was a teenager, and she went on to work there for 25 years as a ceramics instructor.
Karita worked as a teacher at the IAIA for twenty-five years before stepping away to concentrate on her sculpting. In addition to her history, Coffey’s work is influenced by features of African art and the art of the Australian Aborigines, as well as by characteristics of her own culture. Her work is on display at the National Museum of the American Indian, where it is part of their permanent collection.
There were a number of prominent artists who attended IAIA during this time period, such as T. C. Cannon, Doug Hyde, Linda Lomakhaftewa and Earl Biss, who all went in their own right. In many ways, these pupils were the first generation of painters to successfully break away from the Studio Style.
She received her bachelor’s degree in fine arts and her master’s degree in fine arts from the University of Oklahoma.
Karita Coffey’s Career
Karita went on to teach at IAIA for 25 years before taking a leave of absence in 2015 to focus on her sculpture.
In addition to her history, Coffey’s work is influenced by features of Indian country, African art and the art of the Australian Aborigines, as well as by characteristics of her own culture.
Museums And Exhibitions
The Gardiner Art Gallery at Oklahoma State University hosted a show of contemporary Native American art in 1983.
In 1985, the American Indian Community House, New York, hosted a traveling exhibition called Women of Sweetgrass, Cedar, and Sage, which was coordinated by Harmony Hammond and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith and traveled around the country.
Anita Fields curated the exhibition Anticipating the Dawn: Contemporary Art by Native American Women, which was held at the Gardiner Art Gallery at Oklahoma State University in 2000.
Four of Coffey’s works and noted especially are included in the collection of the National Museum of the American Indian, United States, which houses four pieces by her. In 1970–71, the artists made the pieces, which were purchased by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board before being transferred to the National Museum of the American Indian in 1985.
Her work is also in the collections of the Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art, the Millicent Rogers Museum, the Heard Museum, and the International Association of Indian Arts Museum of Contemporary Native Art (IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts).
Comanche Nation – The Comanche, sometimes known as the Nmn, are a Native American tribe from the Great Plains region of what is now the United States. Its historic territory included the vast majority of present-day northwestern Texas, as well as surrounding lands in eastern New Mexico, southeastern Colorado, the southwestern Kansas prairie, western Oklahoma, and northwestern Chihuahua and the Smithsonian Institution.
References:
www.arts.wa.gov/artist-collection/?request=record;id=4435;type=701
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