Wendy Red Star
Get an Apsáalooke perspective on history with one of Portland’s internationally acclaimed artists
Apsáalooke Roses (2016) by Wendy Red StarPortland Art Museum
Meet the artist
Artist Wendy Red Star works across disciplines to explore the intersections of Native American ideologies and colonialist structures, both historically and in contemporary society.
Raised on the Apsa’alooke (Crow) reservation in Montana, Red Star’s work is informed both by her cultural heritage and her engagement with many forms of creative expression.
Apsáalooke Roses (2016)
An avid researcher of archives and historical narratives, Red Star seeks to incorporate and recast her research, at times collaborating intergenerationally.
Here, she pairs images of herself as a child next to her daughter, both wearing regalia amidst hand-drawn flowers.
Installation view of "APEX: Wendy Red Star," Portland Art Museum (September 16–December 7, 2014) (2014-09-16)Portland Art Museum
1800 Crow Peace Delegation (2014)
While preparing for her 2014 APEX solo exhibition, she noticed her daughter’s markmaking on copies of the 1880 Crow Peace Delegation photos. This sparked inspiration.
The original photographs were taken by C.M. Bell during the Peace Delegation of 1880.
Ten Crow Chiefs and three of their wives visited Washington D.C. where they were eventually coerced into signing a treaty ceding a portion of tribal lands to the United States Government.
Peelatchiwaaxpáash/Medicine Crow (Raven) (2014)
Red Star's annotated prints add cultural and biological knowledge paired with her own observations and wry humor.
This intervention gives new context and insight to the Indigenous leaders, their families, regalia, and the objects they hold.
Symbolically redlining the portraits, Red Star recasts the sitters as individuals and centers the perspective of the Crow Chiefs through an Apsáalooke lens.
Wendy Red Star (American and Apsa'alooke, born 1981), Apsáalooke Roses, 2016. Inkjet prints mounted on color lithograph; image/sheet: 18 × 26 in. Museum Purchase: Funds provided by Barbara Christy Wagner, 2016.96.1 © Wendy Red Star; Wendy Red Star (American and Apsa'alooke, born 1981), 1880 Crow Peace Delegation: Peelatchiwaaxpáash/Medicine Crow (Raven), 2014. Pigment-based inkjet print with hand coloring; 16 × 11 in. Museum Purchase: Acquired with the assistance of The Ford Family Foundation and the Native American Art and Photography Funds, 2015.104.1a © Wendy Red Star
