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

Biography

Early life

Star WallowingBull was born August 18, 1973, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Influenced heavily by his father Frank Big Bear (White Earth Ojibwe), 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. 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. 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. 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. The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation describes his work as " colored pencil on paper and acrylic on canvas to explore intersections of American Indian and U.S. pop culture in the 21st Century." 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. 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. 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. 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.

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.

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. 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.

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. 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.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

Select group exhibitions

Collections

• British Museum
• National Museum of the American Indian
• Plains Art Museum
• Weisman Art Museum
• Tweed Museum of Art
• Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art

Honors and awards

• Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Regional Artist Fellowship
  • Fellowship studying history of Araphoe tribe and maintaining their cultural traditions through art
• Bush Foundation - Bush Artist Fellowship
• Plains Art Museum, Art on the Plains 6 - Juror Award
• Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian - Native Artist Fellowship

References

1. ^ "Star Wallowing Bull". Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
2. ^ "Saved by Art: Star Wallowing Bull of the Transformer Tribe". Ict News. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
3. ^ "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. ^ "Star Wallowing Bull American Dreamers, 2000". Weisman Art Museum. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
12. ^ "New Art 2.0 | Star Wallowing Bull". Eiteljorg. 2014-12-30. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
13. ^ "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.

External links

• Star Wallowing Bull
• Star Wallowing Bull, Native Arts & Cultures Foundation

• Arapaho people
• 1973 births
• Living people
• Native American drawing artists
• Native American painters
• Ojibwe male artists
• Ojibwe artists
• Artists from Minneapolis
• 21st-century American male artists
• 21st-century American artists
• White Earth Nation people