Phallic White Man

Upon viewing this sculpture from the back view, its title becomes immediately understandable.

(Born 1943) Robert (Bob) Haozous was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1943 to Allan Houser (Chiricahua Apache) and Anna Marie Gallegos (Navajo/English/Spanish). He grew up in northern Utah, where his parents were teachers at the Inter Mountain Indian School in Brigham City.

Haozous chose to take back his traditional Apache family name rather than use the Anglicized version – Houser – given to his father as a child in an Oklahoma Indian boarding school.

He attended Utah State University before serving for four years in the Navy. Haozous then studied sculpture under Ella Hays at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, receiving his BFA in 1970.

Three years later, Haozous won the Gold Medal in wood at the Heard Museum’s Sculpture Exhibition. At the Heard’s next sculpture exhibition, a stone piece by Haozous titled “White Stele” took 1st prize. Both he and his father, Allan Houser, were honored at a sculpture retrospective at the Heard Museum on July 9, 1983 through May 1, 1984.

Bob Haozous’s work is often ironic, humorous and symbolic with references to his concerns about technological intrusion and the environment, as well as the differences in Euro-American and Native America perspectives.

He fabricated five monumental steel sculptures for the Sky Harbor Airport Terminal. A large stainless steel sculpture entitled “Woman in Love” is a part of the permanent collection at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona and was recently exhibited in the Clinton White House as well as the Clinton Library.

In 1999, Bob Haozous organized the first Native American group art exhibit shown at the international Venice Biennale.  

April 2025 will see Haozous' major retrospective covering decades of his work in every media held at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona.