Frank Big Bear

Artworks Big Bear uses various mediums in his art such as Prismacolor pencils and paint to create drawings, paintings, and photo collages that reflect his heritage, his people, and his various worlds. He has been compared to Picasso in that Big Bear uses a form of "cubism and surrealism" to create a reflection of the modern complexity of humankind using "highly personal signs, symbols, and images" used in a form of tribal storytelling. Described as "a visual dictionary of images from Big Bear's world", Big Bear used the mediums of colored pencils and paper in order to create a diverse range of juxtaposing, vibrantly colored images. With his inspiration from the White Earth Reservation and his passed down tribal stories, Frank is often reminded of his spirituality and connection to his tribe and his people through these types of drawn art. Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks St. Cloud University, St. Cloud, Minnesota

Select exhibitions Special projects

2016-17 The Walker Collage, Multiverse #10, Walker Art Center commission for the Target Project Space 2003 Detritus of the Light People, mural created in collaboration with Star Wallowing Bull for the Plains Art Museum, Fargo MN 1994-98 Dream Catcher Love Song, Mayda Cortiella School, Brooklyn, The New York City Percent for Art Program 2008-11 Drawings by Frank Big Bear, Organized by the Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota, Duluth, traveling exhibition, color catalogue 1994 Out of the North: Frank Big Bear, Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Santa Fe 2013 Before and after the Horizon: Anishinaabe Artists of the Great Lakes, Smithson National Museum of the American Indian, George Gustav Heye Center (August 3 - June 15, 2014); Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (July 26, 2014 - Dec 7, 2014)

Selected group exhibitions

2014 Art at the center: 75 Years of Walker Collections, Walker Art Center 2010 Until Now: Collecting the New, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis curated by Elizabeth Armstrong 2007 New Dreaming: October Gallery, London, England 2003 Paper Warriors: the Drawings of Frank Big Bear and Star Wallowing Bull, Carl Gorman Museum, University of California, Davis 1993 Six McKnight Artists, MCAD Gallery, Minneapolis College of Art and Design 2015 Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Fellowship, Duluth 2013 Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant 2008 Bush Foundation, Enduring Vision Award, St Paul 1998 Bush Foundation Fellowship, St Paul 1992 McKnight Foundation Fellowship, Minneapolis 1986 Bush Foundation Fellowship, St Paul 1982 Jerome Foundation Fellowship, Minneapolis