Keri Ataumbi’s mother is Jeri Ah-be-hill, Kiowa-Comanche, who ran a trading post on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Jeri grew up immersed in meticulously crafted Native American-made objects. Her father is Richard Greeves, an Italian-American sculptor. Keri’s sister is Teri Greeves.

Keri attended Prep School in Boston, MA., then spent one year of undergraduate study at the Rhode Island School of Design before moving to Santa Fe, NM in 1990. She worked as a landscape designer while attending the Institute of American Indian Arts from 1994-1996 and the College of Santa Fe. She graduated from the College of Santa Fe with a BFA, Magna Cum Laude in painting and a minor in Art History.

Keri traveled abroad to Indonesia where she painted for three months. A dilapidated concrete wall in Bali inspired a series of painting. “I tried to explain that you could find beauty in the smallest things.”

Keri has won numerous awards throughout the years at the SWAIA Indian Market and the Heard Museum Indian Fair & Market.

Tribal Affiliation

Kiowa