Image: Yellowstone Art Museum, Philadelphia
Star WallowingBull's 'Futuristic Time Keepers' runs from September 4, 2026, through January 9, 2027, in the Charles M. Bair Gallery, marking the artist's first exhibition in Montana.
The exhibition presents new and recent works that merge Indigenous cultural references with American pop culture, autobiography and mechanical systems.
Working with colored pencil on paper and acrylic on canvas, WallowingBull builds densely layered compositions in which figures, symbols and environments interlock within indeterminate time structures. Within this context, Indigenous identity is presented as adaptive and ongoing rather than fixed or historical, extending into cosmic futures.
Under the mentorship of his father, artist Frank Big Bear, WallowingBull developed a disciplined foundation in drawing through highly detailed colored-pencil work defined by precision and accumulation. He later studied with Pop artist James Rosenquist, whose mentorship expanded his practice into large-scale acrylic painting and deepened his engagement with the visual language of American mass media.
WallowingBull is an enrolled member of the White Earth Band of Chippewa; he was raised in the Twin Cities and is now based in Fargo, North Dakota.
