Cultural Confluence: Work by Truman Lowe

February 9, 2017 - September 16, 2017
Truman Lowe

Truman Lowe is a Ho Chunk sculptor and installation artist noted for his poetic ability to transform wood into water. Cultural Confluence traces the origins and evolution of his practice, from the traditional splint-plait baskets that Lowe learned how to make at an early age from his parents to the large-scale installation Ottawa which explores both the surface of and earth beneath a stream. The lyrical sculptures in Cultural Confluence unearth the power of water manifest in the riverbed, water surface, and vessel.

Lowe is a professor emeritus of art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and former curator of contemporary art for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian. He is regarded as “the preeminent Native sculptor of his generation” for his unique innovations as a contemporary sculptor.

Born in 1944 in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, a predominantly Ho Chunk community, Lowe’s abstract sculpture, through the use of natural materials and traditions and the exploration of Native themes, reflects his childhood engagement with the natural world. While his sculpture draws heavily from his Native American upbringing, it also draws on his formal education. Lowe earned a B.S. in Art Education from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in 1969, and went on to earn a M.F.A. in sculpture from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1973.

Truman Lowe, Feather Canoe, 1993, wood, feathers, 18 x 72 x 12 in.

Ongoing Exhibitions

No Time For Despair

Ongoing
No Time For Despair

To say that right now is the ideal time to make art that speaks directly to the people about social justice is an understatement. Because the very nature of art is to undertake or assume the role of a healer by shading light on the human condition.

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Bee in Flight

Ongoing
Bee in Flight

Community artist and school art teacher MeLissa Kossick, who guides youth classes at the Museum on art, gardens, and pollinators, has created an enchanting mosaic design in the Creativity Pathway in the Serkland Gallery called Bee in Flight.

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S.P.A.C.E.

Ongoing
S.P.A.C.E.
Kaleidoscope

The S.P.A.C.E. (Sculpture Pad Art Collaborative Experiment) project is a public art initiative undertaken collaboratively between Plains Art Museum, and the college art departments at North Dakota State University, Minnesota State University Moorhead, and Concordia College.

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The North Dakota Mural

Ongoing
The North Dakota Mural

Drawing on his childhood memories of the Great Plains, he created a work that speaks to the wide open spaces, huge vistas, and ocean-like skies of the region.

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Fragile Preservation

Ongoing
Fragile Preservation
A Tallgrass Community

While the Tallgrass Prairie is a community made up of a great diversity of species, Fragile Preservation represents a selection of them.

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