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gallery visit our gallery in the elegant sydney suburb of double bay

artworks browse through a selection of sculpture, graphics, pottery, textiles and artifacts

interiors browse our collection of hand crafted furniture and homewares

contemporary jewellery view our selection of contemporary american indian jewellery

old pawn jewellery view our selection of old pawn american indian jewellery

fetishes browse our collection of american indian fetishes

publications view our articles on native american art
we publish regularly in respected magazines

exhibitions view our current exhibition

contact for more information about our artworks use this link to send the gallery an email

Four Winds Gallery

Current Exhibition:
Cody Sanderson


Past Exhibitions:
Buying Trip 2008
R.C. Gorman
Bruce King and Na Na Ping
Jovanna Poblano and Daniel Chattin
Buying Trip 2007
Liz Wallace
Stan Natchez - Shoshoni/Paiute Artist
NaNa Ping and Thomas Bucich
Buying Trip 2006
George Catlin
Denise and Samuel Wallace
Image Gallery - Denise and Samuel Wallace
Image Gallery - Dawn Wallace
Charlene Reano
Buying Trip 2005
Robert Deurloo
Edward Sheriff Curtis
Liz Wallace
Buying Trip 2004
Zapotec Weavings of Teotitlan
Clifford Fragua
NaNa Ping

Zapotec Weavings of Teotitlan

These textiles come from the Thomas P. Foote collection, a name that has become renowned for the finest weavings from the Oaxaca Valley. This collection of over 30 weavings depicts traditional, extremely fine Mexican saltillos and now beautiful hand loomed pieces depicting turn of the century Navajo rug designs. Thomas Foote has been working with the best weavers from this region for 25 years to achieve this level in both technical execution and design.

To speak of today's textile weavers in Mexico is to celebrate the artists of Teotitlan del Valle in the valley of Oaxaca. Teotitlan's lineage as an important centre for Zapotec culture reaches back two thousand years and its blanket weaving to the earliest days of the colonial period. The ancient Zapotec were the first people to settle in Central America.

As far back as 500BC, Teotitlan's weavers used cotton yarn and the backstrap tension loom to make textiles for trade. The Spanish introduced wool yarns and the fixed-frame pedal loom of a type still in use today.

The Mexican Revolution saw a celebration of indigenous crafts, and the opening of the Pan-American Highway in 1948 brought Teotitlan's weavers to the craft markets of Oaxaca.

The range of rugs today range from modernist motifs to Navajo geometrics to ancient and historical patterns reprised in vivid and colourful contemporary designs.

Zapotec weavers express their sense of well-being and belonging in what they weave and the tapestries and rugs that are currently produced reconcile ancient history with the ways of the 21st century market place.

These exquisite, hand-loomed textiles from the Teotitlan region are comparatively much more affordable than their neighbouring American Navajo rugs, yet similarly highly collectable.