Kevin Redstar was born in 1943 on the Crow
Indian Reservation in Lodgegrass, MT. In a family that valued art,
music and culture , he developed an early love of drawing and
music. These sustained him during his years in grade school, where
Crow students were denied their language and cultural heritage.
Later when he was one of 160 students chosen to attend the newly
established Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New
Mexico, he was encouraged and required to explore his history and
culture through modern art technique. Upon graduating, Kevin and
several other Native students received scholarships to the San
Francisco Art Institute. Here he was exposed to the avant garde
and the political and social concerns of the post-modern art.
For over thirty years, Kevin has been painting
and exhibiting his work and is considered a historic recorder and
ambassador for his Native Crow culture. His paintings have gained
international recognition as his work has evolved and the texture of
his ‘stories’ become richer, more symbolic and more universal. His
use of color-washes gives his work a life of its own and his
majestic and mythical subjects capture the spirit of his people.
In 1997, Kevin Redstar received an Honorary
Doctorate Degree in fine art from the Rocky Mountain College in
Billings, MT. He was acknowledged for his great talent and
willingness to share it with others. He serves as a role model and
mentor to young students, telling them that faith and perseverance
is everything in the ‘tough’ world of the arts.
Kevin has had exhibits at major galleries and
museums throughout the United States and Europe. His works are held
in the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian of
the Smithsonian Institution, the Whitney Museum of Western Art in
the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, The Herd Museum, The Denver Art
Museum, The C.M. Russell Museum, The Eiteljorg Museum of Indian and
Western Art, The Colorado Springs Art Center, The Schingoethe Center
for Native American Cultures, The Institute of American Indian Arts
Museum, The Peking National Art Gallery, Espace Pierre Cardin
Collection, The Leige Museum of Belgium and the United States
Department of State. In the last five years he has completed
residencies at the Russian Academy of Art in Moscow and at Roanoke
College in Salem, Virginia.
