Raven Halfmoon facts for kids

Raven Halfmoon (born 1991) is an artist from the Caddo Nation. She is famous for making very large sculptures out of clay.

About Raven Halfmoon

Raven Halfmoon grew up in Binger and Norman, Oklahoma. She is a member of the Caddo Nation. When she was 13, she started working with clay. A Caddo artist named Jeri Redcorn taught her a lot.

Raven went to the University of Arkansas. She earned two degrees there. One was in cultural anthropology, which is the study of human cultures. The other was in ceramics and painting. Later, she spent two years at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts. This was a special program for artists.

In 2021, Raven had her first solo art show. It was called Okla Homma to Manahatta in New York City. She created these artworks during her time at the Bray Foundation. The show's name combines words from two Native American languages. Okla Homma is a Choctaw phrase for the Caddo Nation. Manahatta is a Lenape word for Manhattan. The show featured ten huge sculptures. Some weighed over 450 pounds and stood 6 feet tall.

How Raven Creates Art

Raven Halfmoon focuses on sculpting. She uses her Caddo Nation ancestry in her artwork. Her art helps her bring back old Caddo pottery traditions.

When she was in college, she had access to a 3-foot kiln. This allowed her to make very big pieces. She often uses the coil method to build her large sculptures. This is a way of stacking clay coils to create tall forms.

She also learned about other cultures in her anthropology classes. For example, she studied how the Olmec heads and Easter Island statues were made. This helped her think about making large-scale art.

Famous Artworks

Raven Halfmoon's sculptures often show her Caddo heritage. She uses her art to challenge stereotypes. She wants to show the strength of Caddo women and her culture.

Bah'hatteno Nut'tehsi (Red River Girl in Caddo), 2021

This sculpture is about 134.6 cm tall. It shows two women's heads facing outwards. The sculpture is dark with white on top of the heads. There are two red marks dripping down the faces.

Raven wants this artwork to be easily recognized. It shows her Caddo nation's art. She uses it to fight against wrong ideas about her culture. You can see this sculpture at the Ross + Kramer gallery in New York.

Natural Hands, Natural Rider, 2020

This clay sculpture shows a woman riding a horse. Raven created it to break common stereotypes. She wanted to show the strength of Caddo women.

She used the color red in this artwork. In Native American culture, red can represent missing Indigenous women. It also shows those who are silenced. This piece is about 114.3 cm tall. It is also at the Ross + Kramer gallery in New York.

I'm A Covergirl Type Of Girl, 2017

While many of Raven's works reflect her culture, this one has a more modern feel. It still uses traditional pottery techniques. She used clay to stack the pieces. This allowed them to be fired all at once.

The sculpture is made of dark black stoneware. Red glaze was used on top, looking like lipstick. It is about 66 cm tall. This artwork is located in the Kourri + Corrao Gallery in New Mexico.

Art Shows

Raven Halfmoon's art has been shown in many places.

Solo Exhibitions

• Flags of our mother | Ridgefield, Connecticut, USA | June 25, 2023 - January 07, 2024
• Sunsets in the west | Santa Monica, California, USA | March 25, 2023 - April 22, 2023
• Raven Halfmoon: The New Native | Los Angeles, California, USA | September 14, 2019 - October 26, 2019
• Raven Halfmoon: Okla Homma To Manhatta | Chelsea, New York, USA | January 08, 2021 - February 14, 2021
• Raven Halfmoon: Caddo Girl in a Material World | Miami, Florida, USA | November 07, 2020 - December 05, 2020
• ONLINE: Raven Halfmoon: Rumination in Isolation | Lexington, Massachusetts, USA | May 21, 2020
• Raven Halfmoon: New Monuments | Missoula, Montana, USA | August 02, 2022 - December 31, 2022
• Raven Halfmoon | Ghent, New York, USA | March 19, 2022 - June 12, 2022

Group Exhibitions

• Bates College, Museum of Art | Lewiston, Maine, USA | October 27, 2023 - March 04, 2024
• Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination since 1969 | Annadale on Hudson, New York, USA | June 24, 2023 - November 26, 2023
• Ceramic Group Show: Ghost | Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA | August 04, 2023 - September 09, 2023
• American Woman | New York, USA | January 16, 2020 - March 07, 2020
• Burke Prize 2019 | Midtown, New York, USA | October 03, 2019 - April 12, 2020
• 100 Years 100 Women | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA | August 18, 2020 - September 27, 2020
• LIMBO act II | Antwerp, Belgium | October 17, 2020 - November 15, 2020
• The Body, The Object, The Other | Park La Brea, Los Angeles, California, USA | January 25, 2020 - January 10, 2021
• Figure 9 | West Town, Chicago, Illinois, USA | April 16, 2021 - May 29, 2021
• Pollen On A West Wind | Upper East Side, New York, USA | February 09, 2023 - March 25, 2023
• In the Middle of Everywhere | Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada | June 04, 2022 - February 26, 2023
• You Are Heleswv (Medicine) | Atlanta, Georgia, USA | June 11, 2022 - September 04, 2022
• Light Up The Sky | Los Angeles, California, USA | July 09, 2022 - August 13, 2022
• Separate/Together | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | January 22, 2022 - February 26, 2022
• Clay Pop | Soho, New York, USA | September 10, 2021 - October 30, 2021
• ArtNow 2021 | Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA | July 29, 2021 - September 13, 2021