Wendy Red Star, 1873 Crow Delegation

OPEN/CLOSE: October 3-November 31, 2018
Closing reception on November 30 from 6-8pm.

Pushdot Studio
2505 SE 11th Avenue, Suite 104
Portland, OR 97202
Mon-Fri. 8:30am to 5:00pm, free admission

The poignant exhibition by Wendy Red Star consists of reproductions of photographs, taken in Washington D.C by the Department of Interior and the Bureau of Ethnology. The images were annotated by Red Star with notes on cultural detail in red ink, scrawled on the portraits, asserting each individual”s identity and accomplishments. The photographs reflect the deliberate erasure of Native American culture that served to dehumanize the Crow and other indigenous people in the U.S.

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 Apsáalooke (Crow) reservation in Montana, Red Star’s work is informed both by her cultural heritage and her engagement with many forms of creative expression, including photography, sculpture, video, fiber arts, and performance. An avid researcher of archives and historical narratives, Red Star seeks to incorporate and recast her research, offering new and unexpected perspectives in work that is at once inquisitive, witty and unsettling. Intergenerational collaborative work is integral to her practice, along with creating a forum for the expression of Native women’s voices in contemporary art.

Red Star has exhibited in the United States and abroad at venues including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fondation Cartier pour l’ Art Contemporain, Domaine de Kerguéhennec, Portland Art Museum, Hood Art Museum, St. Louis Art Museum, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art, among others. She served a visiting lecturer at institutions including Yale University, the Figge Art Museum, the Banff Centre, National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Dartmouth College, CalArts, Flagler College, and I.D.E.A. Space in Colorado Springs. In 2017, Red Star was awarded the Louis Comfort Tiffany Award and in 2018 she received a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship. In 2019 Red Star will have her first career survey exhibition at the Newark Museum in Newark New Jersey.

Red Star holds a BFA from Montana State University, Bozeman, and an MFA in sculpture from University of California, Los Angeles. She lives and works in Portland, OR.