Phoenix’s Heard Museum is giving one of the Southwest’s most distinctive sculptors the full retrospective treatment. Bob Haozous: A Retrospective View opens November 8, 2026, and runs through June 7, 2027, tracing the remarkable career of Warm Springs Chiricahua Apache artist Bob Haozous (b. 1943), whose steel, stone and wood works have been collected across the nation and the world.
Born in Los Angeles and raised mostly in Santa Fe, Haozous came to the Heard’s hometown with deep local roots: his grandparents once called the Phoenix Indian School home, a family history that quietly grounds this homecoming of a show. After earning his B.F.A. from California College of Arts and Crafts in 1971, he built a body of work that blends careful craftsmanship with big, open-hearted questions about land, history and what it means to belong to both.
Visitors know his hand even if they do not know his name: Indigenous Evolution, his celebrated 2004 sculpture, is the landmark of the Heard’s own Berlin Gallery entrance. Seeing that familiar work alongside seven decades’ worth of companions in one retrospective promises a satisfying arc – the student, the master, and the stories carried in every cut of steel. Admission for adults is $26, with discounts for seniors, veterans, students and children, and free entry for American Indians with tribal ID.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
