Kevin Red Star

Kevin Red Star was born on the Crow Indian Reservation in Lodge Grass, Montana. He attended the newly founded Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and then was given a full scholarship to San Francisco Art Institute.

He is collected by many prestigious museums nationally and internationally. He has been a professional artist for more than 50 years and is represented by many galleries throughout the West.

Red Star holds honorary doctorate degrees from Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana (1997), and the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico (2010). In 2018, he was awarded James R. Parks Trustee Purchase Award at the Autry Museum’s Masters of the American West and was awarded the Montana Governor’s Award for the Arts in Helena, Montana.

In 2022 Red Star was asked to be the first artist to represent and promote the prestigious Norman Maclean Literary Festival, a biannual event held in Missoula, Montana. This intertwining of literature and the fine arts in supporting one another’s mission was very successful.

Red Star was recently honored with the eighth acquisition of his artwork by the Whitney Museum in Cody, Wyoming, as part of the William E. Weiss Memorial Fund Award. His painting Red Bird is beautifully displayed there through April 2024.

“Indian culture has in the past been ignored to a great extent. It is for me, as well as for many other Indian artists, a rich source of creative expression. An intertwining of my Indian culture with contemporary art expression has given me a greater insight concerning my art. I hope to accomplish something for the American Indian and at the same time achieve personal satisfaction in a creative statement through my art.”

Kevin Red Star is represented by Cawdrey Gallery, Whitefish, Montana; Courtney Collins Fine Art, Big Sky, Montana; Dana Gallery, Missoula, Montana; Old Main Gallery, Bozeman, Montana; Sorrel Sky Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Durango, Colorado; and Stapelton Gallery, Billings, Montana.