Star WallowingBull

Last updated
Star WallowingBull
Born (1973-08-18) August 18, 1973 (age 51)
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Notable workBlack Elk's Little Sand Man

Detritus of the Light People

American Dreamers
Father Frank Big Bear
Awards NACF Regional Artist (2014) [1]

Star WallowingBull (born 1973) is a Native American visual artist known for his signature Prismacolor drawing. [2] He is a citizen of White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe and of Arapaho descent. [1] His geometric figurative work evoke machinery and draw from Pop culture.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Star WallowingBull was born August 18, 1973, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. [3] Influenced heavily by his father Frank Big Bear (White Earth Ojibwe), [4] a prominent artist, WallowingBull started drawing at 8 months old and continued to be influenced by Native American art, Pop Art, and European Art Masters in his home of Minneapolis. [2] But as he grew up, he struggled with personal conflicts in his life causing him to drop out of high school and leading him into a path of alcoholism. [5] He eventually used art and these influences to develop a contemporary autobiographical style portraying the struggles of Native American life in a time where Native American people, were still adjusting into a new way of life and law in the United States.

Art career

Frank Big Bear being a prominent artist himself connected his son to art dealer Todd Bockley, who jump started WallowingBulls' career by showcasing it at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis. [6] Many art collectors were drawn in by his signature art form use of Prismacolor colored pencils, which provided a metallic tone to his collage-like drawings. [3] The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation describes his work as "[employing] colored pencil on paper and acrylic on canvas to explore intersections of American Indian and U.S. pop culture in the 21st Century." [1] An example of one of his earlier art pieces would be Black Elk’s Little Sand Man, a piece that represented a contrast showing symbols of different Indigenous Native American cultures against symbols of what the masses in the U.S. perceive to be Indigenous culture. [7] His work is a representation of the conflicting layers of identity held by generations of Native American people, as they have faced prejudice and unwarranted conflict through colonial influences.

A significant influence came later into Star Wallowing Bulls' life in 2005 when he met his mentor-to-be James Rosenquist in Fargo, North Dakota. [8] While suffering from hand pain, Rosenquist taught Wallowing Bull the art of painting and gave him a $1000 and a full set of tools to start painting. [2] Rosenquist would teach Wallowing Bull the art form he would carry on throughout most of his work after the use of colored pencils caused health issues in his hands. [9]

Teaching

Currently, Star Wallowing Bull actively goes around to schools of different levels teaching art near his home of Minneapolis as well as throughout parts of North Dakota and the Midwest.

Artwork

Plains Art Museum mural

This mural, commissioned by the Plains Art Museum in Fargo, North Dakota, was a piece done in 2003 by Wallowing Bull along with his father Frank Big Bear. Contrary to a lot of other work by Wallowing Bull, this piece had a lot heavier influence from Native art styles and motifs. This piece still uses very bright colors, portraying native birds flying around heads of gods surrounded by abstract patterns. A quote in the top right corner states: "I will not be there. I will not fall. Bury my heart at Wounded Knee," referring to the Wounded Knee massacre and paying homage to the struggles faced by Indigenous people of past generations. [10]

American Dreamers

This piece of prismacolor art is full of bright colours and portrays a Native American chief in the front with another Native holding a gun. Other Native elements such as deer appear, but are all contrasted by a hundred dollar bill in the background and faces prominent in American society such as Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy. [11] This piece, published in 2000, reflects into how Wallowing Bull felt growing up influence by two societies he had to conform to. This piece, evident in the name itself, symbolizes that the American Dreamers in the background of the picture resemble the same spirit the Native American people have in an effort to search for their identity. [11]

Clown Face

One of his more environmentally geared pieces of art, this piece was released in 2010 and printed in 2015 for the New Art 2.0 print for Eiteljorg Museum. [12] This piece has abstract colors and elements and features a man drawn in abstract native pattern. We also see rain, drawn in a similarly abstract manner, falling from the sky and hitting the man in the arm causing his arm to burn. This is an environmental pursuit and commentary on smog and acid rain affecting people as well as crops, and done in a way where inverse tones are used to create a powerful image. [12]

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions [13]

DatesExhibitionLocation
January 24, 2015 - July 31, 2015Star Wallowing Bull: Transformer

Star Wallowing Bull: Mechanistic Renderings

Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND

Museum of Contemporary of Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM

October 23. 2013 - November 30, 2013Star Wallowing Bull: Mechanistic RenderingsBockley Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
November 21, 2009 - January 2, 2010Star Wallowing Bull: Wind-talkerBockley Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
November 18, 2008 - December 23, 2008The Art of Star Wallowing BullBockley Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
October 18, 2006 - November 15, 2006Star Wallowing Bull: Beyond TraditionBockley Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
September 22, 2005 - January 8, 2006Between Two Cultures: The Art of Star Wallowing BullPlains Art Museum, Fargo, ND
2001Star Wallowing Bull: Ubiquitous VisionsPlains Art Museum, Fargo, ND

Select group exhibitions [13]

DatesExhibitionLocationPeople Involved
January 31, 2014 - May 18, 2014Contemporary American Indian ArtNerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park KSVarious Artists
2013-14Before and after the Horizon: Anishinaabe Artists of the Great LakesSmithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, George Gustav Heye Center (August 3 - June 15, 2014)

Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (July 26, 2014 - December 7, 2014)

curated by David Penney and Gerald McMaster
September 25, 2011 - August 10, 2011Vantage Point: The Contemporary Native Art CollectionSmithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DCVarious Artists
September 13, 2007 - October 27, 2007Oshki-bawaajige - New DreamingOctober Gallery, London, England Frank Big Bear, Andrea Carlson, and Star WallowingBull
September 28, 2004 - December 5, 2004Waasa Inaabidaa - We Look in All DirectionsCarl Gorman Museum, University of California, Daviscurated by The Minneapolis Foundation

Minneapolis 2003 Paper Warriors: the Drawings of Frank Big Bear and Star Wallowing Bull

2004Detritus of the Light PeoplePlains Art Museum, Fargo, NDFrank Big Bear
2000Contemporary Native Art in MinnesotaWeisman Art Museum, Minneapolis 1999 Open House, Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis Julie Buffalohead and Jim Denomie, curated by Kathie Bennewitz and Jill Boldenow;

shown in conjunction with Listening with the Heart: the Work of Frank Big Bear, George Morrison, and Norval Morrisseau, curated by Todd Bockley

Collections

Honors and awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Rosenquist</span> American painter (1933–2017)

James Albert Rosenquist was an American artist and one of the proponents of the pop art movement. Drawing from his background working in sign painting, Rosenquist's pieces often explored the role of advertising and consumer culture in art and society, utilizing techniques he learned making commercial art to depict popular cultural icons and mundane everyday objects. While his works have often been compared to those from other key figures of the pop art movement, such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, Rosenquist's pieces were unique in the way that they often employed elements of surrealism using fragments of advertisements and cultural imagery to emphasize the overwhelming nature of ads. He was a 2001 inductee into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art</span> Art museum in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.

The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art is an art museum in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The Eiteljorg houses an extensive collection of visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas as well as Western American paintings and sculptures collected by businessman and philanthropist Harrison Eiteljorg (1903–1997). The museum houses one of the finest collections of Native contemporary art in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emmi Whitehorse</span> Native American painter and printmaker (born 1957)

Emmi Whitehorse is a Native American painter and printmaker. She was born in Crownpoint, New Mexico and is a member of the Navajo Nation. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Ulrich</span> American photographer (born 1971)

Brian Ulrich is an American photographer known for his photographic exploration of consumer culture.

Bonnie Devine is a Serpent River Ojibwa installation artist, performance artist, sculptor, curator, and writer from Serpent River First Nation, who lives and works in Toronto, Ontario. She is currently an associate professor at OCAD University and the founding chair of its Indigenous Visual Cultural Program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dana Claxton</span> Indigenous Canadian filmmaker, photographer and performance artist

Dana Claxton is a Hunkpapa Lakota filmmaker, photographer, and performance artist. Her work looks at stereotypes, historical context, and gender studies of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, specifically those of the First Nations. In 2007, she was awarded an Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Denomie</span> Native American painter (1955–2022)

Jim Denomie was an Ojibwe Native American painter, known for his colorful, at times comical, looks at United States history and Indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Joe Feddersen is a Colville sculptor, painter, photographer and mixed-media artist. He is known for creating artworks strong in geometric patterns reflective of what is seen in the environment, landscape and his Native American heritage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hazel Belvo</span> American painter

Hazel Belvo is an American painter, educator and women's art advocate.

Andrea Carlson is a mixed-media American visual artist currently based in Chicago. She also maintains a studio space and has a strong artistic presence in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minnesota.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wendy Red Star</span> Native American contemporary artist (born 1981)

Wendy Red Star is an Apsáalooke contemporary multimedia artist born in Billings, Montana, in the United States. Her humorous approach and use of Native American images from traditional media draw the viewer into her work, while also confronting romanticized representations. She juxtaposes popular depictions of Native Americans with authentic cultural and gender identities. Her work has been described as "funny, brash, and surreal". Red Star was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2024.

Dyani White Hawk is a contemporary artist and curator of Sicangu Lakota, German, and Welsh ancestry based out of Minnesota. From 2010 to 2015, White Hawk was a curator for the Minneapolis gallery All My Relations. As an artist, White Hawk's work aesthetic is characterized by a combination of modern abstract painting and traditional Lakota art. White Hawk's pieces reflect both her Western, American upbringing and her indigenous ancestors mediums and modes for creating visual art.

Liza Sylvestre is an American visual artist born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is known for detailed abstract mixed media paintings and drawings. Her current work explores new media such as installation and video art. Much of her work revolves around our sensory perceptions and misconceptions of the world around.

Anna Tsouhlarakis is a Native American artist who creates installation, video, and performance art. She is an enrolled citizen of the Navajo Nation and of Muscogee Creek and Greek descent. Her work has been described as breaking stereotypes surrounding Native Americans and provoking thought, rather than focusing solely on aesthetics. Tsouhlarakis wants to redefine what Native American art means and its many possibilities. She also works at the University of Colorado Boulder as an Assistant professor.

Patrick William Kruse, also known as Pat Kruse, is a Native American culture teacher and artist that specializes in birchbark art and quillwork. He works alongside his son Gage to create birch bark paintings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maggie Thompson (artist)</span> Native American textile artist and designer

Maggie Thompson is a Native American textile artist and designer from the Fond du Lac Ojibwe with a focus on "knitwear and tapestry". Her work focuses on her heritage and identity and also addresses cultural appropriation and Native authenticity. She is the director of the Two Rivers Gallery in Minneapolis,

Holly Wilson is a Native American artist from Oklahoma. She is an enrolled member of the Delaware Nation and is of Cherokee descent.

Frank Big Bear is a Native American artist born in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota and is a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, White Earth Band. As a multimedia Native artist, Big Bear is known for his colorful, abstract display through his drawings, paintings, and photo collages that address various messages about Big Bear's livelihood and worldly perception.

Sonya Kelliher-Combs is a Native American artist who works primarily with organic structures such as walrus gut, which was used for centuries by Native Americans in making Inupiaq "overcoats". Her work has been described as "[moving] beyond oppositions between Western/Native culture, self/other, and man/nature, in order to examine their interrelationships and interdependence while also questioning accepted notions of beauty."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosy Simas</span>

Rosy Marie Simas is a Seneca multidisciplinary artist and choreographer in the United States.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Star Wallowing Bull". Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 "Saved by Art: Star Wallowing Bull of the Transformer Tribe". Ict News. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  3. 1 2 "M State - Collection". www.minnesota.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  4. ↑ Migrations: New directions in Native American art. Devon, Marjorie, University of New Mexico. Art Museum., Tamarind Institute. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. 2006. ISBN   0-8263-3769-4. OCLC   63297689.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  5. ↑ "Star Wallowing Bull American Dreamers, 2000". Weisman Art Museum. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  6. ↑ "Breaking the mold". INFORUM. 16 January 2003. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  7. ↑ Totten, Gary (2014-12-01). "Editor's IntroductionGender, Transnationalism, and Ethnic Identity". MELUS. 39 (4): 1–6. doi:10.1093/melus/mlu052. ISSN   0163-755X.
  8. ↑ Before and after the Horizon : Anishinaabe Artists of the Great Lakes. Penney, David W.,, McMaster, Gerald, 1953-, National Museum of the American Indian (U.S.) (First ed.). Washington, DC. 10 September 2013. ISBN   978-1-58834-452-6. OCLC   858610485.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  9. ↑ Silberman, Robert. "Complexity and Contradiction in Native American Surrealism." Journal of Surrealism and the Americas 7.1 (2013): 108.
  10. ↑ "Photo of commissioned Mural- Star Wallowing Bull-designed with Father Frank Big | #1831658697". Worthpoint. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  11. 1 2 "Star Wallowing Bull American Dreamers, 2000". Weisman Art Museum. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  12. 1 2 "New Art 2.0 | Star Wallowing Bull". Eiteljorg. 2014-12-30. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  13. 1 2 3 "Bockley Gallery :: Artists :: Star Wallowing Bull". bockleygallery.com. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  14. ↑ "drawing | British Museum". The British Museum. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  15. ↑ "Vantage Point - Once upon a Time…". americanindian.si.edu. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  16. ↑ "Modern & Contemporary Native American – Plains Art Museum" . Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  17. ↑ "Star Wallowing Bull American Dreamers, 2000". Weisman Art Museum. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  18. ↑ "Tweed Museum of Art | UMN Duluth" (PDF). www.d.umn.edu. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  19. ↑ Department, JCCC Digital. "Contemporary American Indian Art · The Nerman Museum Collection". www.jccc.edu. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  20. ↑ "star-wallowing-bull – Plains Art Museum" . Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  21. ↑ "Vantage Point - Once upon a Time…". americanindian.si.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.