Marvin Oliver was born in 1946 in Seattle. His father was Quinault and his mother
was lselta Pueblo. He obtained a bachelor of arts from San Francisco State
University in 1970 and a masters from the U of W in 1973. In 1975 Martin became
a professor of Northwest Coast Indian art at the U of W after teaching at Edmonds
and Olympic Community Colleges. He also teaches part time at the U of Alaska in
Ketchikan. Marvin is also the Curator of Contemporary Native American Art for the
Burke Museum. He is a very versatile artist having done work in wood, cast glass
and bronze in addition to serigraph prints and working in several different styles
from the tribes along the Pacific Northwest Coast. He has received many
commissions and grants including the main doors at the Daybreak Center in
Seattle. He has monumental sculptures installed in Seattle, Fairbanks and
Jackson, Wy. Marvin says that his "works are formulated by merging the spirit of
the past tradition with those of the present to create new horizons for the future."
Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.
