Wendy Red Star (b. 1981, Billings, MT; lives and works in Portland, OR), of the Piegan clan and from the district of Pryor, engages in a multidisciplinary artistic practice grounded in the history and cultural knowledge of the Apsáalooke (Crow) people. Raised on the Crow reservation in Montana, her work reflects her deep connection to her community, culture and land. Red Star sees her artistic practice as inseparable from her Apsáalooke identity and foregrounds the importance of amplifying Native women’s voices in contemporary art.

Red Star’s art approaches U.S. history through an Apsáalooke lens, placing Apsáalooke experiences, traditions and stories alongside the narratives that have shaped America’s understanding of its past. Through photography, sculpture, video and fiber arts, her work emphasizes Apsáalooke cultural practices and knowledge transmission, especially within her own family and community. Her practice is grounded in rigorous research and archival materials, bringing Apsáalooke histories into sharper relation with U.S. history and revealing the structures embedded in the archive.

Red Star holds a BFA from Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, and an MFA in Sculpture from University of California, Los Angeles, CA. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2024 and received both the Bonnie Bronson Fellowship and the Infinity Award in Contemporary Photography and New Media that same year. Additionally, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in 2025 from Montana State University, Bozeman.

In 2019, Red Star had her first career survey exhibition, Wendy Red Star: A Scratch on the Earth, at the Newark Museum, Newark, NJ, which traveled to the San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX, and the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH. Recent exhibitions include Wendy Red Star: Her Dreams Are True, The Trout Gallery, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA (2025); One Blue Bead, Sargent’s Daughters, New York, NY (2026); Taking Back Our Space: Photographic Perspectives, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (2026) and A Kind of Paradise: Colonial-Era Photography in Contemporary Art, Museum Rietberg, Zürich, Switzerland. Red Star will be included in the National Gallery of Victoria's Triennial (2026). In 2027, the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., will present a major solo exhibition of her work.

She has exhibited in the United States and internationally at venues including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Paris, France; Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; and Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN. Her work is featured in numerous public collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; The Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; British Museum, London, UK; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; National Museum of the American Indian, New York, NY; Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; and Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY, among others.