Visual artist Wendy Red Star is one of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's 2024 Fellows.
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced Tuesday its 2024 class of fellows - often known as recipients of the “genius grant.”
The list includes Wendy Red Star, an Apsáalooke artist based in Portland. Red Star’s work seeks to reclaim images of Native Americans from history by creating, beading, sewing, building, configuring and then photographing finished sculptures, paintings and prints.
OPB spoke with Red Star about the fellowship and what it will mean for her work.
The following transcript has been edited for clarity and length.
How it felt to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship:
It was kind of funny because they had a ruse where they had emailed me and asked if I would be able to give my feedback on another artist and they didn’t give the artist’s name. So I emailed them back and said, ‘Of course.’
In that email, they’re like, ‘Do you have a place where you can have a confidential conversation?’ So the next day I had a meeting, I was in my backyard, it was confidential. And they said ‘We’re sorry, we kind of made this ruse, but you’re the artist that we are recommending.’
It took me like a few seconds to understand and then I was a little bit shell shocked. So it’s been kind of a very surreal situation.
How Red Star describes her work:
As I’ve matured in my practice I’ve started to sort of understand what it is that I’m called to do within the work. What I’m very excited about is to build an art historical canon for Apsáalooke aesthetics. To research that, share that, elevate it. So all of my work pertains to where I come from. My background, identity and the history that has molded me.
Related: Watch: Wendy Red Star on Oregon Art Beat
On how the $800,000 award will affect her life and work over the next five years:
What’s amazing is I’ve been self-employed since 2016 and I’ve at times stared down a blank calendar wondering if I’ll get an opportunity. So far things do come in, but it’s sort of this anxiety dance that you have to do as a self-employed person and as an artist.
It’s a lot of pressure. It’s all on you to come up with ideas, to have people be invested in those ideas and support. So it’s just really wonderful to have a sense of stability for five years that I’ve never really had as a self-employed artist.
On what it’s like to be part of a legacy of Indigenous fellows:
Well, it feels wonderful. But I think for me as a teenager, I remember hearing about the MacArthur, which you wouldn’t necessarily think growing up in Montana on the Crow Indian reservation that I would know about the MacArthur.
But I knew about it because a tribal member, Janine Pease Windy Boy, received it in the nineties for starting the Little Big Horn College. Which has really reshaped the community. It has gifted so many Apsáalooke with an opportunity to learn and grow. So I’ve always admired Janine and always, like, ‘She’s a genius’ and just was like, ‘Wow, that’s amazing.’
And so that caliber I’m just sort of humbled and just so so excited to share in that legacy actually with Janine and my tribe being the two tribal members who are women who have received this great honor. So that’s the thing I’m kind of floating around. Thinking about that and that legacy of being with her and making our community proud.
Related: Watch: Oregon Art Beat 'Crow's Shadow'