Artist Info
Jonathan Loretto
The School for Advanced Research was pleased to welcome Jonathan Loretto as the 2012 Rollin and Mary Ella King Native Artist Fellow. Loretto is from Walatowa (Jemez) and Cochiti Pueblos and has been creating traditional pottery for the past thirty years.
In 2011, Loretto switched from creating vessels to developing figurative forms. Then, he began creating what he calls “storytelling bobbleheads,” which combine the figurative tradition of Cochiti Pueblo with the contemporary pop phenomenon of the bobblehead. Loretto states, “I really enjoy carrying on the Cochiti tradition of storytellers, but with a modern twist.”
Multi-talented, Loretto studied culinary arts at the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute and photography at the Institute of American Indian Arts. He also previously enjoyed a successful career as a jeweler, working with noted designers such as Nancy Brown Jewelers, Bagley & Hotchkiss, and Ralph Lauren.
Loretto’s work has been featured at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian and Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe; the Tower Gallery in Pojoaque, New Mexico; Hui’noeau Visual Arts Center in Makawao, Hawaii; and the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont. In 2011, he made his debut at the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts Indian Market.
