Wendy Red Star facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Wendy Red Star
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Red Star, left, pictured in her work Ashkaamne (matrilineal inheritance) (2019)
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| Born | 1981 (age 43–44) Billings, Montana, United States
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| Education | Montana State University Bozeman, BFA University of California Los Angeles, MFA |
| Known for | Photography, installation, sculpture |
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Wendy Red Star (born in 1981) is a modern artist from the Apsáalooke (Crow) Nation. She was born in Billings, Montana, USA. Wendy uses humor and traditional Native American images in her art. She wants to show real Native American culture, not just the old, romantic ideas people might have. Her art mixes popular images of Native Americans with true cultural and gender identities. People describe her work as "funny, bold, and dreamlike." In 2024, Wendy Red Star received a special award called a MacArthur Fellowship.
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About Wendy Red Star
Wendy Red Star was born in 1981 in Billings, Montana. She is part Apsáalooke (Crow) and part Irish. She grew up in Pryor, Montana, on the Crow Reservation. This area is a special place for the Crow Nation's culture.
When she was 18, Wendy left the reservation to study at Montana State University - Bozeman. From 2000 to 2004, she studied art and Native American Studies.
Growing Up and Identity
Growing up with parents from different backgrounds, Wendy sometimes felt unsure about her identity. In elementary school, she worried if classmates knew her grandparents were white. When she left the reservation, she felt like an "outsider." People's reactions to her identity and art sometimes made her doubt herself.
Later, she learned to be proud of who she was. By age 26, when her daughter was born, she felt completely comfortable with her identity. She started putting her cultural background into her art. She thought about her childhood and where she grew up.
Family and Influences
Wendy's mother was a nurse who encouraged Crow cultural activities. Even though Wendy didn't speak Crow, her adopted Korean sister learned it as a child. Her father was a rancher and a pilot. He also played in an Indian rock band called "Maniacs." Wendy's uncle, Kevin Red Star, and her grandmother, Amy Bright Wings, greatly influenced her art.
Education and Art Forms
Wendy Red Star studied sculpture in college and graduate school. But her art also includes many other forms. She works with photography, fashion design, bead work, fiber art, performance art, and painting.
In 2004, she earned her Bachelor of Fine Art degree from Montana State University. Then, in 2006, she earned her Master of Fine Art degree from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Life and Work
From 2012 to 2013, Wendy managed the Chief Plenty Coups State Park in Pryor, Montana. In 2014, she moved to Portland, Oregon. There, she worked on a project called Medicine Crow and the 1880 Crow Peace Delegation. Since 2016, Wendy has been a full-time artist in Portland.
She has also given talks at many universities. These include Yale University, Dartmouth College, and Brown University.
Wendy's Art Career
Supporting Native Artists
Wendy Red Star works to create more chances for Native women in the art world. In 2014, she organized an art show called Wendy Red Star's Wild West & Congress of Rough Riders of the World. This was the first time an all-Native contemporary art show was held at Bumbershoot in Seattle. Ten artists showed their work, mostly Native artists who focused on identity in their art.
In 2017, Wendy also organized an exhibit at the Missoula Art Museum called Our Side. It showed the work of four modern Indigenous female artists.
Wendy also supports the idea of Indigenous Futurism. This idea looks at the future through Indigenous eyes. She speaks out against colonialism, which is when one country takes control of another. Her art is a way to resist and express her existence. She often works with other Indigenous artists and different generations of her family. This helps share many different Indigenous stories.
Famous Artworks
Thunder Up Above Series
For her Thunder Up Above series, Wendy created a special costume. It mixed European and Victorian styles with Native American designs. Then, she used photo editing to add a space background. One art expert said the pictures look like a "first meeting" with an unknown group. Wendy said she wanted them to show "someone you would not want to mess with."
Four Seasons Series
In her Four Seasons series, Wendy makes fun of old ideas about Native Americans. Some people think Native Americans are always "one with nature." Wendy's photos show her posing with blow-up deer and fake mountains. She uses humor to make people think about these ideas. The Saint Louis Art Museum bought Four Seasons for its collection.
White Squaw
Wendy often researches old Hollywood images, like beautiful maidens or western landscapes. While researching the word squaw, she found a 1950s movie called White Squaw. She also found old books with similar covers. Wendy took photos of these covers and put her own image in a cheap costume where the "White Squaw" character was. She kept the original sayings from the covers, creating a funny and critical effect.
1880 Crow Peace Delegation
In 1880, six Crow chiefs went to Washington, D.C. They talked with the president because settlers wanted to build a railroad through their hunting lands. Wendy researched one of these chiefs, Medicine Crow/Peelatchiwaaxpáash (Raven). She learned the stories behind his famous picture. She used a red pen on a print of the photo to point out details of his outfit. She showed the meaning of his ermine shawl, the bows in his hair, and his eagle fan. Wendy wanted to use these details to show Medicine Crow as a real person. She also used ledger drawings he made after returning home.
Circling the Camp
Wendy took photos at the Crow Fair, a big yearly event in Montana. To focus on the Crow Nation's culture and history, she removed the backgrounds from the pictures. This made the Indigenous people and objects in the front stand out more.
Apsáalooke Feminist
Many old photos of Crow women are in black and white. So, Wendy Red Star took colorful photos of herself and her daughter, Beatrice. They wore bright Crow clothes to show the everyday fashion of Crow people. She added patterned backgrounds to make the images pop.
My Home is Where My Tipi Sits
This series of color photos shows grids of everyday things on Crow reservations. These include government houses, old "rez" cars, sweat lodges, signs, and churches. The art is like the photos of German artists Bernd and Hilla Becher. They took pictures of industrial buildings and water towers, arranging them in grids.
Let Them Have Their Voice
This art project was made in response to a book by Edward S. Curtis from 1908. Wendy changed Curtis's portraits. She made the Native people in the photos into empty shapes, like shadows. But she made them present through sound. She used old recordings of Crow singers performing traditional songs that Curtis had made.
Wendy Red Star: A Scratch on the Earth
This is a book that came out with a big art show about Wendy's work. The show was organized by the Newark Museum of Art in 2019. This book is the most complete collection of information about Wendy Red Star and her art.
Travels Pretty
In 2023, the Public Art Fund put on a public art show called Travels Pretty. It showed a series of Wendy's paintings on bus stops in New York, Chicago, and Boston.
The Soil You See...
In 2023, Wendy was one of six artists asked to create art for the National Mall in Washington, D.C. This was part of the first art show ever on the Mall. Wendy designed a memorial for the Apsáalooke leaders who signed treaties with the United States. The art piece is a red glass fingerprint of Wendy's, set in a big rock. It has the names of the Apsáalooke leaders who signed treaties. It is placed right next to the Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Working with Others
Since 2013, Wendy has worked with her daughter, Beatrice Red Star Fletcher. Beatrice is often in Wendy's art and helps give tours at their shows. Their joint works have been shown at the Tacoma Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Portland Art Museum.
In 2022, Wendy worked with Stanford University. Their project, Wendy Red Star: American Progress, was about her experiences as an Apsáalooke artist. It explored what it feels like to belong and not belong in the United States. Wendy worked with Stanford students to research and gather materials for the artworks. One piece, called Lady Columbia, is a wallpaper print based on paint-by-numbers. This project created a free public program to share the artist's voice and story. It shows how Wendy tries to create public art that brings people together to learn about Indigenous stories.
Selected Exhibitions
Wendy Red Star has been showing her art since 2003. Here are some of her exhibitions since 2011:
- Parading Culture (Tokens, Gold and Glory) at Haw Contemporary Fine Art Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri (2016)
- The Plains Indian: Artists of Earth and Sky at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2015)
- Peelatchiwaaxpáash/Medicine Crow (Raven) & the 1880 Crow Peace Delegation at APEX gallery, Portland Art Museum (2015)
- Tableaux Vivant: Nature's Playground at Seattle Art Fair – Volunteer Park, Seattle, Washington (2015)
- Circling the Camp: Wendy Red Star at the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art (2014)
- Crow Women's Objects at the Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri (2014)
- Wendy Red Star at C.N. Gorman Museum (2014)
- I.M.N.D.N. — Native Art for the 21st Century at The Art Gym, Marylhurst University (2014)
- Contemporary American Indian Art at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (2014)
- Making Marks: Prints From Crow's Shadow Press at the National Museum of the American Indian (2014)
- Cross Currents at Metropolitan State, University of Denver (2013-2014)
- Biennial Contemporary American Indian Arts Series: Native Voices and Identity Narratives at The A.D. Gallery (2013)
- My Home Is Where My Tipi Sits (Crow Country) at the Missoula Art Museum (2011)
- American Spirit at Bockley Gallery (2011)
- Wendy Red Star: A Scratch on the Earth at The Newark Museum of Art (2019)
- Indelible Ink: Native Women, Printmaking, Collaboration at the University of New Mexico Art Museum (2020)
- Wendy Red Star: Apsáalooke: Children of the Large-Beaked Bird at MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA (2020-2021)
Awards and Fellowships
- 2024 MacArthur Fellowship
- Joan Mitchell Foundation Emerging Artist Fellowship
- Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship
- 2017 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation
See also
- Native American women in the arts
- Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas
- Indigenous Futurism
