Colleen Cutschall, (born 1951) also known as Sister Wolf, is an Oglala-

Sicangu Lakota The Sicangu are one of the seven ''oyates'', nations or council fires, of Lakota people, an Indigenous people of the Northern Plains. Today, many Sicangu people are enrolled citizens of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of the Rosebud Indian Reservation a ...

artist from Pine Ridge,

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

, who works in

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

Biography

Colleen Cutschall was born in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. She is a Lakota artist, art historian, educator, writer, activist, and curator from who has lived and worked in Southwestern

since the 1980s. Cutschall studied with painter Oscar Howe in the late 1960s. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Barat College and a Master of Education from Black Hills State University. Cutschall works in

Painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

Sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

Photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

, and

Installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific art, site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior intervent ...

. Some themes of her work include Lakota mythological archetypes, human relationships to the cosmos, and the implications of exploration. Her work is described as being flexible and situational and incorporating elements of anthropology, feminism, natural sciences, and cultural identity. Colleen Cutschall's work is in the permanent collection of the Manitoba Arts Council Art Bank, the

Canada Council The Canada Council for the Arts (), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporations of Canada, Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It is Canada's public arts funder, with a mandate to ...

Art Bank, the Government of Manitoba, Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Kenderdine Art Gallery,

MacKenzie Art Gallery The MacKenzie Art Gallery (MAG; ) is an art museum located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. The museum occupies the multipurpose T. C. Douglas Building, situated at the edge of the Wascana Centre. The building holds eight galleries totaling to of ...

, Oscar Howe Art Center, and the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Cutschall is known for designing the sculpture Spirit Warriors, installed at

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument preserves the site of the June 25 and 26, 1876, Battle of the Little Bighorn, near Crow Agency, Montana, in the United States. It also serves as a memorial to those who fought in the battle: George A ...

. This iron sculpture at the

, which was until 1991 named after George Custer, United States Commander in the

American Indian Wars The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, was a conflict initially fought by European colonization of the Americas, European colonial empires, the United States, and briefly the Confederate States o ...

. Cutschall's sculpture commemorates Native American warriors in the

Great Sioux War of 1876 The Great Sioux War of 1876, also known as the Black Hills War, was a series of battles and negotiations that occurred in 1876 and 1877 in an alliance of Lakota people, Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne against the United States. The cause of t ...

University career

In addition to maintaining her studio practice, Colleen Cutschall is professor emerita at

Brandon University Brandon University is a university located in the city of Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, with an enrolment of approximately 3,375 (2020) full-time and part-time undergraduate and graduate students. The current location was founded on July 13, 1899, ...

. After over twenty years of teaching at

in the Department of Native Studies, she founded the Department of Visual and Aboriginal Art.

Significant exhibitions

* "Voices in the Blood," Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, 1990. Toured to the Oscar Howe Art Center, Dakota Gallery; Minnesota State University, South Dakota; the Art Gallery of Mississauga; the Thunder Bay Art Gallery; the

; and more. * "Sister Wolf in Her Moon," Thunder Bay Art Gallery, 1995. * "House Made of Stars," Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1996. * "Identity By Design: Tradition, Change and Celebration in Native Women's Dresses," March 24, 2007 - August 3, 2008,

National Museum of the American Indian The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers. The museum has three ...

, Washington, D.C.; and September 26, 2008 - February 7, 2010, National Museum of the American Indian, New York, NY, at the

George Gustav Heye Center The National Museum of the American Indian–New York, the George Gustav Heye Center, is a branch of the National Museum of the American Indian at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in Manhattan, New York City. The museum is part of the Sm ...

. Colleen Cutschall also wrote a chapter, ''Dress, Designers, and the Dance of Life'', for a book which accompanied the exhibition. *"….Dies Again!,
Urban Shaman
May 27, 2005 - July 2, 2005, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cutschall, Colleen Canadian women artists First Nations artists 1951 births Living people Oglala people American emigrants to Canada Black Hills State University alumni Academic staff of Brandon University Oglala women artists Oglala artists American women academics 20th-century Native American artists 20th-century Native American women