WHEELWRIGHT MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN presents “Silver Honors Stone: The Work of Julian Lovato” from April 10 through October 17, 2026. The exhibition is the first solo show dedicated to jeweler Julian Lovato (Santo Domingo, 1925 - 2018), his career, and influence on Native American jewelry. Benefitting from the generosity of private lenders, and institutional loans from the Heard Museum, the exhibition will feature 80 works. Lovato had a long and prolific career, creating works of composed beauty known for their raised dimensional design. Lovato’s career maps the ways in which the Native American jewelry field flexed and changed over the course of the twentieth century. In his teens, Lovato worked for Maisels in Albuquerque. After serving in Japan he worked at the Thunderbird Shop in Santa Fe, moving to Packards in the mid-1960s. By the 1970s, he had set up his own studio in Kewa Pueblo, working closely with his wife Marie O. Lovato. Shown: Hollowform silver bracelet with set coral, made by Julian Lovato while at Packards. Wheelwright Museum Collection. Ring of silver and turquoise. Stephen Schultz collection; 45 Lone Mountain bolo tie of silver and turquoise. Photograph by Arland Ben. Published in Turquoise In America Part Two, 1910-1990, © Callais Press 2020; Necklace of silver and coral with hands and naja by Julian Lovato. Wheelwright Museum Collection.
704 Camino Lejo, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505; 505.982.4636; www.wheelwright.org.