Adrian Larvie wants to find a way, through his art, to serve as a guide for people in despair, to inspire those who wish to work on their personal challenges by leading them back to their culture.  He hopes to help those still in their addictions to see, as he has, that there are other, much happier paths to travel.

An Oglala Lakota, Adrian was born in 1958 on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.  He received his Associate in Fine Arts degree from the Institute of Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico; at the College of Santa Fe, he studied with Van Paquin, a respected Zuni artist. 

Adrian is a multi-faceted artist who works with acrylics, oils and pastels on large canvases that are notable for fine matting and framing.  He also creates sculptures, featuring Native American themes in soapstone, pipestone, and alabaster.   One of his murals, a portrait of four Yakama chiefs, can be found on the south side of a building in Toppenish, Washington.  Other works include drum paintings and fetishes. 

Adrian’s work is vibrant, featuring portraits of proud Native men and women in the colorful regalia of the Plains, as well as such well-known historical icons of Native history as Crazy Horse, Black Elk, Chief Joseph, Red Cloud and many others who are depicted along with power symbols embodying such concepts as spirituality, strength, creativity, wealth and wisdom.   Some of his work makes explicit comments about the need for Americans to pay more attention to environmental issues; others focus on Adrian’s implicit wish to heighten the understanding of viewers about his culture and traditions and the spiritual and physical needs and goals of his people.