Kelly Byars

About

Kelly Byars was born in Lawton, Oklahoma in 1962 – a member of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations of Oklahoma. He moved to New Mexico in 1983 and attended the Institute of American Indian Arts where he graduated in 1985 with a degree in Three-Dimensional Art. He has worked as a stone sculptor for over twenty-five years with exhibitions at local and national venues. Byars then attended the University of New Mexico where he received his B.A. in Media Arts in 2004 and his M.A. in Language, Literacy and Sociocultural Studies in 2009. He has produced several films as part of Reel Indian Pictures in Albuquerque, New Mexico and is a contributing faculty member at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design.