Melissa Antonio

Acoma Pueblo

Melissa Concho Antonio was born into the Red Corn and Sun Clans of Acoma Pueblo in October 1965. Her parents were Gilbert and Lillie Concho. She learned to make pottery from watching and workiong with her mother as she was growing up. Then she married Daniel Antonio and began to work with his mother, Mildred Antonio. They sometimes collaborated making pottery for years.

Melissa mostly makes traditional and ceramic polychrome jars, bowls, seed pots and vases. She likes to decorate them with designs that include animals, kokopelli and eye-dazzling black-on-white patterns.

After earning First and Second Place awards at the New Mexico State Fair in 1992, she earned a Third Place award there in 1993. Then in 1994 she earned First Place and Best of Show awards at the State Fair. She earned a First Place award at the Gallup InterTribal Ceremonial that same year. In 1995 she earned a First Place award at the State Fair, then a Second Place award at Gallup. In 1996 she earned a First Place award at the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Arts and Crafts Show in Espanola, NM. Then she earned Second Place, Third Place and Honorable Mention awards at Gallup. In 1997 she earned a Second Place award at the New Mexico State Fair. In 2001 she earned a Third Place award at the State Fair, then she earned a Second Place award at the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Arts and Crafts Show. She seems to be still working as she earned a First Place award in 2018 at the 21st Annual Prescott Indian Art Market at the Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott, AZ.


Geometric and checkerboard-based design in black on a white jar
Black-on-white jar decorated with a geometric and checkerboard-based design
3.75 in H by 4 in Dia