Rick Dillingham

American, (1952–1994)

Born in 1952, Rick Dillingham was raised in Thousand Oaks, California. As a young man, he benefited from proximity to many legendary ceramic artists in Southern California, especially Beatrice Wood and Vivika Heino. Inspired by his interest in Native American culture, Dillingham moved to Albuquerque, where he received his BFA from the University of New Mexico in 1974. He returned to Southern California to train with Hal Riegger for his MFA at the Claremont Graduate School, which he completed in 1976. Moving once again to New Mexico, he deepened his connections to Native American potters, including María Martinez and Elmer Gates. In Santa Fe, he pursued a multifaceted career as an artist, curator, gallerist, and historian of Native American art. He is the author of the key texts on Southwestern Native American pottery, Acoma and Laguna Pottery and Fourteen Families in Pueblo Pottery. Dillingham died at age forty-one due to complications of HIV/AIDS.