Steve Turner is pleased to present Sunsets in the West, a solo exhibition by Raven Halfmoon which features five monumental ceramic sculptures that reflect her identity as a woman and a Native American. Each work is a reflection of her interpretation of Caddo culture and the fight to maintain a place for it in today’s world. To pursue that fight, she composes large works that are compelling in size and content. She wants them to be confronted, observed and recognized so that the audience will know that the Caddo people and other Indigenous people are still here, resilient and powerful. Halfmoon is motivated to maintain the tradition of creating, story-telling and sharing history.
The title of the exhibition honors Halfmoon’s connection to the American West, Oklahoma where she grew up, Montana where she also spends time and Long Beach where she created some of the works. The West inspires her to think big and to create big. Two works in this show tower to nearly seven feet, a scale seldom achieved in ceramic sculpture. Her women are glazed with Caddo tattoos and symbols of stars. They represent history as well as a “New America.” Caddo culture is coupled with Pop culture in the form of cowboy hats, Gucci sunglasses and Louis Vuitton handbags. Halfmoon sees her women as warriors for those who have no voice and as monuments that will bridge the gap between yesterday and tomorrow.
Raven Halfmoon (b. 1991, Norman, Oklahoma) earned a BA in Ceramics and Painting as well as Anthropology from the University of Arkansas (2014). She has had solo exhibitions at Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles (2019); Bill Brady Gallery, Miami (2020); Ross + Kramer Gallery, New York (2021); Art Omi, Ghent, New York (2022) and Missoula Art Museum (2022). Later in 2023, she will have a solo exhibition at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut which will also travel to the Bemis Center, Omaha. Her work is in several institutional collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston;; Detroit Institute of Arts; Arkansas Museum of Fine Art, Little Rock; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, Kansas and Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. This is her first exhibition with Steve Turner.