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tyrrelltapaha

@tyrrelltapaha

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Diné weaver and Sheepherder based in the Four Corners
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Weaving my interpretation of reality.

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In conjunction with the current exhibition "Woven Futures, Unbound Patterns: Contemporary Diné Weaving" #WarholGrantee ICA Santa Fe will host a conversation on Wed. 10/7 with sculptor Rose B. Simpson and Joshua Michael Schrei, creator and host of The Emerald podcast, for It Seems Everywhere There Are Eyes. Drawing from Simpson’s relationship with clay and herengagement with artistic practice, and Schrei’s work with myth, story, and animate traditions, the conversation will explore making as an exchange between artist and material.⁠
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"Woven Futures, Unbound Patterns: Contemporary Diné Weaving," curated by Venancio Aragón brings together weavers across generations to foreground weaving as a living, evolving practice. Moving beyond historical frameworks shaped by trading posts, static ethnographic framings, and external narratives, the exhibition centers weaving as a practice led by the weavers themselves.⁠
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The Foundation supports ICA Santa Fe for fostering the exchange of ideas across cultures, fields, and generations, creating space for artistic practices that engage complex histories and emergent forms of knowledge.⁠
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1. Tyrrell Tapaha, Sonny Boi Summer, 2023. ⁠
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2. Theresa Bowman [Diné (Navajo)], Rug, diamond twill weave, 1942. Wool and dyes, 54 × 36 in. Courtesy of the School of Advanced Research. Photo by Addison Doty⁠
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3. Venancio Aragón, Black and White Checks. Wool/mohair weft, wool warp⁠, Natural and synthetic dyes.⁠
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@tyrrelltapaha #TyrrellTapaha #TheresaBowman @aragontextiles #VenancioAragón @ica_santafe #ICASantaFe #WarholFoundation #AndyWarhol #Warhol #Philanthropy #WovenFutures #DinéWeaving #weaving #ContemporaryDinéWeaving

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“Caught in the Web” by Tyrrell Tapaha (Diné)

As a sheepherder, Tyrrell’s art-making process begins with the raising of sheep and finishes on the loom. Their textiles are made with raw natural animal and plant fibers, hand-spun and hand-dyed with local flora.

Tyrrell grew up on the Navajo Nation, where intergenerational pastoral living was handed down through their grandfather, great-grandmother, and other relatives. Today, they still continue to live and tend to their flock, in the Four Corners region of Diné Bikeyah.

Tyrell’s work, as modeled by sheep from his own flock, is available at hoshart.com

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Woven Futures, Unbound Patterns is an exhibition that recently opened at @ica_santafe and it features artwork from some of the most accomplished contemporary Diné weavers. The show is open through October 11, 2026 and if you make the journey to Santa Fe you’ll be able to see pieces by @codyedgewater @tyrrelltapaha @dybegay @marlowekat and many more.

#navajoweaving #textileart #nativeamericanart #marksublette #medicinemangallery

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“Caught in the Web” by Tyrrell Tapaha (Diné)

“I enjoy rendering the world around me. As a chronic documenter and student of Life, my 35mm, notepad, and pencil are my bread and butter. Given that my current direction is centered around traditional lifeways of my people (I.e. sheepherding, food sovereignty, land stewardship etc) I reflect often of our autonomy and agency/the lack there of. Autonomy whether it’s cultural, spiritual, physical, or mental is a gift we as people have. The current state of the world tends to push us in a direction of helplessness, which is a by-product of a properly functioning system. It’s a reoccurring theme within empire building that I enjoy picking apart. Satirically of course.”

Available now at hoshart.com

“Pink Mountains” by Tyrrell Tapaha (Diné)

“A newlywed couple asked me to weave this for their wedding. I was really into pinks at the time and I loved the colors I was working with - it’s a depiction of the San Francisco peaks in Flagstaff where I was living at the time. I was inspired by landscapes, and I have always loved mountains.”

Available now at hoshart.com

“Caught in the Web” by Tyrrell Tapaha (Diné)

“I enjoy rendering the world around me. As a chronic documenter and student of Life, my 35mm, notepad, and pencil are my bread and butter. Given that my current direction is centered around traditional lifeways of my people (I.e. sheepherding, food sovereignty, land stewardship etc) I reflect often of our autonomy and agency/the lack there of. Autonomy whether it’s cultural, spiritual, physical, or mental is a gift we as people have. The current state of the world tends to push us in a direction of helplessness, which is a by-product of a properly functioning system. It’s a reoccurring theme within empire building that I enjoy picking apart. Satirically of course.”

Available now at hoshart.com

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HOSH recently released our collaboration with Diné weaver, Tyrrell Tapaha.

Tyrrell Tapaha is a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice is centered around textiles, and fiber arts. Tyrrell grew up on the Navajo Nation, where intergenerational pastoral living was handed down through their grandfather, great-grandmother, and other relatives.

Their textiles are made with raw natural animal and plant fibers, hand-spun and hand-dyed with local flora.
Tyrrell lives and works as a sheepherder in the Four Corners area of Diné Bikeyah.

Hear more about Tyrrell’s work in the video, and support Tyrrell’s collection, “Caught in the Web” and “Pink Mountains” directly at hoshart.com

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HOSH is proud to announce the launch of our collaboration with Diné weaver, Tyrrell Tapaha.

Tyrrell Tapaha is a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice is centered around textiles, and fiber arts. Tyrrell grew up on the Navajo Nation, where intergenerational pastoral living was handed down through their grandfather, great-grandmother, and other relatives. Their textiles are made with raw natural animal and plant fibers, hand-spun and hand-dyed with local flora. Tyrrell lives and works as a sheepherder in the Four Corners area of Diné Bikeyah.

“My work encapsulates agro-pastoral living and understanding the inner workings of doing everything sheep-to-loom… I spend a lot of time looking at the minuscule and larger details of this lifestyle, and my weavings are a glimpse of that.”
– Tyrrell Tapaha

Tyrrell’s collection, “Caught in the Web” and “Pink Mountains” are available now at hoshart.com

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Yesterday was my birthday! As always, I reflect on my year— what an incredible six months I have had! I have found my forever home🤞🏼Santa Fe I love you! I deepened relationships with old friends and made radical new ones. I continued my support of artists I admire and was introduced to astronomically talented new ones. I left my beloved staff and colleagues to inherent an inspiring new set of them! Maisy, Rothko, and I found new hiking, swimming, and dog parks + a skiing spot and thank goodness a new yoga studio! I feel so deeply grateful for my parents who, Captain Marty pictured here in St. Francis Auditorium, said ”I’ve never been more proud of anyone or anything in my whole life”. Thank you everyone and everything pictured here over this past year❤️This coming year feels like it’s gonna be the best to come!

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5 artists we love that you need to know 💚

@rexsouthwick_artist

@jonathanbertin

@dibenedettosteve

@tyrrelltapaha

Rose Wylie

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woven futures, unbound patterns // one line at a time // @ica_santafe

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❤️‍🔥Arizona❤️‍🔥 this summer before heading back East for school.

Artwork info:

Slide 5: “Coyote Appears at Muhaḍagĭ Doʼag (Greasy Mountain)” (2026), commission by Cara Romero (Chemehuevi) @cararomerophotography for Phoenix Art Museum @phxart

Slide 7: Illustration by Charles Yanito (Diné) from the book “Legend of the Horse” @dinecollegeedu library

Slide 9: “Wild Cherries” (2003) by Harry Fonseca (Maidu) @babst_gallery and on view @talkingstickresort

Slide 11: “Rain God Mesa Landscape Panels” (2009-2010) by Margaret Wood (Diné/Seminole) and on view @navajonationmuseum

Slide 12: “The Cowboy” (1982) by Fritz Scholder (Luiseño) and on view @phxart

Slide 18: 1960s Diné women’s outfit made by a Diné maker once known and on view @navajonationmuseum

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Tyrrell Tapaha (Diné) is a 6th-generation weaver and mixed fiber artist based in the Four Corners Region of Diné Bikeyah (The Navajo Nation). A full-time sheep herder, Tapaha’s artistic practice is grounded in his relationship to his flock, the conditions of whom inform the quality and character of his weavings.
By shearing, processing, dying, and spinning wool by hand with all-natural regional materials, the artist honors ancestral tradition, producing weavings that carry stories of both the animals and the artist at every stage of the process, from the sheep to the loom. With strong attention paid to the documentary nature of weaving, Tapaha creates new possibilities within the art form by combining the customs of pastoral living with an irreverent narrative style and cutting commentary on current issues. “I use archaic tools to make contemporary stories.”
Best known for his pictorial weavings, the artist recontextualizes the representational mode by transgressing standard compositional conventions, interspersing abstract atmospheric layers, and imposing text in both English and Diné bizaad. By rendering these speculative environments, the artist’s personal narrative can grow in both subtle and extreme capacities. Tapaha’s approach upends antiquated conceptions of weaving, instead forming new models in which textiles can function as both concrete records of history and agents to collapse time.
This work, titled ‘I’ll be your mirror’ is one of Tapaha’s many takes on a self-portrait. “It showcases the tools I use on the daily that make my work possible. Most of the tools were inherited, made, and used by my great-grandmothers. Both the tools and practice that were eventually passed down to me. My tools that l included are my battens (long sticks used in weaving), weaving combs, spindles, medication bottle, a Nalgene, a sharpie, a notebook, a Fuji film disposable camera, my phone with earphones, and a toy figurine named Tim.”

~I’ll be your mirror, 2024. Hand-spun vegetal-dyed Navajo Churro wool and mohair, 57 × 27 inches

caption: Moonoka Begay

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Now, weavers like Teseny can see the springs getting more and more parched. Not only that: Herding Churro sheep as a full-time practice is becoming as rare as the breed itself.

“How long does this continue on?” he wonders. “I’d like to see it continue on, you know, forever, because even in the traditional stories, when we take care of our livestock, they take care of us in return.” ~ Casey Teseny ~

https://www.knau.org/knau-and-arizona-news/2026-07-10/navajo-weavers-keep-traditional-sheep-journey-alive-despite-drought-and-modern-pressures

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