AARON LEONARD FREELAND
(Navajo b. 1965 – present)
Aaron Freeland is an award-winning Dine’ (Navajo) artist from Farmington, New Mexico and one of the best pastel artists in the Native American art scene. He produces works in oil (on canvas), monotype, and pastel as well as monotype with hand applied colored chalk and opaque watercolor. Aaron's signature works are oils and pastels painted on black paper, specifically portraying truth through his portraits.
He has been collaborating with master printer Michael Costello at Hand Graphics in Santa Fe, New Mexico for over 20 years. Hand Graphics is the most comprehensive, privately owned printmaking atelier in the Southwest.
As with so many native artists before him, he attended the Institute of American Indian Arts (1973-1976) in Santa Fe New Mexico where he studied under Allen Houser, Doug Hyde and other important twentieth century artists.
“His bold, expressionistic portraits incorporate vivid colors and the immediacy of up-close faces.” (Native Treasures, www.nativetreasures.org, May 2011).
Douglas Miles (Apache Skateboards) said of Freeland’s artwork, “Freeland is one of my FAVE artists who moves the pastels like Paul Gaugin in Tahitian fever mode...”.
Along with Hand Graphics, Aaron has a long-standing relationship with his gallerists, one in Los Angeles and the other in New York. This has allowed him to retain his focus on what he does best, paint.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
“If I knew which way I was headed, I’d be lost.”
EXHIBITIONS:
… Santa Fe Indian Market since 1988. (award winning block print titled "Navajo Girl" for the 2005 Indian Market)
… Wheelwright Museum
... Smithsonian Museum: National Museum of the American Indian
PERMAMENT COLLECTIONS:
… The Museum of Fine Arts Boston
... German Ambassador to the United States
… The Rockefellers
… collections in Asian, Germany and others nationally and internationally
