Fritz Scholder was born on October 6, 1937 in Breckenridge, Minnesota. He is a painter, sculptor and printmaker of international acclaim. Numerous awards in the last forty years include fellowships from the Whitney Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Painting, and awards from the Salon d' Automne in Paris and Intergrafiks in Berlin.

Scholder taught painting at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe from 1964-1969. In 1991 Scholder received the Norsk Hostefest Humanitarian Award and in 1996 he received the Visionary Award from the Institute of American Indian Arts.

He has been an artist in residence at Dartmouth College, as well as guest artist at he Vermont School, Oklahoma Art Institute. Idyllwild Art Institute, Santa Fe Art Institute, Taos School of Art and the American University, Washington, D.C.

Scholder received a BA degree from California State University, Sacramento; and an MFA degree from the University of Arizona. He has received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Art Degrees from Ripon College, Wisconsin; Concordia College, Minnesota; University of Arizona, Tucson; the College of Santa Fe, Unemotional; and the University of Wisconsin, Superior.

He has been the subject of eleven books, three PBS documentaries and is listed in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World.

Scholder is on the board of advisors of ECO, Earth Communications Office in Los Angeles and is a past honoree and present patron of the American Academy of Achievement.

His work is represented in many public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York Biblioteque Nationale, Paris; Los Angeles County Museum; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian; and the Milwaukee Art Museum.

In the last years his works have been exhibited in Japan, China, France and Germany and at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

Fritz Scholder lives in Scottsdale, Arizona