Shawn Tafoya
1996 Dubin Fellow
Shawn Tafoya is a Santa Clara/Pojoaque Pueblo artist who is a graduate of the Institute of
American Indian Arts. He is a member of the prominent Tafoya family of potters, and began
making art at the age of five. Although Shawn is a traditionalist in terms of material and
technique, his pottery and Pueblo embroidery work is strikingly innovative, and he is well
known for it. He has won numerous awards for his work, and has participated in many shows
and exhibitions.
Shawn is also one of the most gifted Pueblo textile embroiderers working today and teaches
this traditional art throughout the northern villages. He participated as the youngest of
eleven invited embroiderers in the School's Pueblo
Embroidery Convocation in February 1996 and assisted in planning an Embroidery Market
at San Felipe Pueblo in October 1996.
Shawn has taught many courses in pottery and embroidery at the Poeh Center in Pojoaque,
New Mexico, as part of an Indian Vocational Education Program.
