Bently Spang facts for kids

Bently Spang, born in 1960, is a talented artist from the Northern Cheyenne Nation in Montana. He creates many different kinds of art, teaches, writes, and helps organize art shows. His artwork has been shown all over the world, including in North and South America, and Europe.

About Bently Spang

Bently Spang is a member of the Tsitsistas/Suhtai (Northern Cheyenne) Nation. He was born in 1960 at the Crow-Northern Cheyenne Indian Hospital in Montana. Spang grew up both on and off the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. He lived in places like Sitka, Alaska and Portland, Oregon.

He went to Montana State University Billings and later earned a special art degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Spang taught video art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston for two years. In 2014, the University of Wyoming named him their "Eminent Artist in Residence." During this time, he taught about Native American art and showed his own art at the university's museum. Today, Spang works as an independent artist. He has his own studio in Billings, Montana.

Bently Spang's Art

Spang's early artworks were sculptures made from different materials, often metal. He also created large art installations. Later, he started using digital tools like film and photography in his art.

Spang gets ideas for his art from his Cheyenne ancestors. They bravely used new materials from Europe in their artwork. He believes his art tells his own story. It explores what it means to be Cheyenne in today's world. He tries to connect these two different worlds. Spang often adds humor to his art to help people understand his messages.

For example, in his sculpture Pevah, which means "good" in Cheyenne, Spang used stone and wood. These materials represent his Cheyenne heritage. He used aluminum to show the modern world. He explained that the metal and wood connect everything. He feels connected to his culture, showing that his people are still strong today.

Another sculpture, War Shirt #1, was inspired by an old Cheyenne tradition. Warriors would decorate their shirts with hair from their community. This showed they drew strength from their people. Spang's War Shirt #1 uses photographic negatives of people he knows. This shows that he also gets his strength from his community.

Spang also worked with a techno DJ named Bert Benally. They created a project called Techno Pow Wow. This mixed rave dance culture with a traditional pow wow. Spang was inspired by the electronic music of the 1990s. He felt the energy and dancing reminded him of pow wows on the reservation. In this piece, Spang performed as "The Blue Guy," a future tribal chief. Through this mix of music and dance, Spang wanted to show how Native American culture and modern culture can be similar.

In his 2009 work, New American Relics: Redux 2, Spang used humor to comment on museums. He felt some museums showed Native American culture as something "lost." He created a fake museum exhibit for "vit-heut" (meaning "white man" in Northern Cheyenne). His "artifacts" were made from plastic parts of everyday modern objects.

From February to March 2014, Spang had an exhibition called "Bently Spang: On Fire." This show at the University of Wyoming Art Museum told the story of the 2012 Ash Creek wildfire. In July 2017, he presented a video art piece called "War Shirt #6 – Waterways." This was part of his Modern Warrior Series. It showed moving images inside a steel war shirt. The art piece explored Spang's connection with water.

Awards and Achievements

Bently Spang has received many awards for his art. In 2003, he won an Outstanding Alumni Award from MSU Billings. He also received a grant from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. The next year, he got a grant from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation for his Techno Powwow Project.

Spang has also earned artist fellowships from the Creative Capital Foundation and the Joan Mitchell Foundation. In 2017, he was one of eight artists to receive the Artist's Innovation Award from the Montana Arts Council. In 2018, he was given the National Artist Fellowship from the Native Arts and Culture Foundation.