Julie Buffalohead


Julie Buffalohead is a contemporary Indigenous American artist. Her work mainly focuses on themes of racial injustice, indigenous rights, and abuse of power.

Early life and education

Buffalohead was born in Minnesota in 1972, and is an enrolled member of Oklahoma's Ponca Tribe. In 1995, she received her Bachelor in Fine Arts from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design before going on to get her Master of Fine Arts from Cornell University in 2001. Buffalohead has stated that her time working with elementary school students while in graduate school caused her to change the way she looked at her Native heritage, spurning her to create art portraying Native stories and myths. She currently resides in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Artistic style and influences

Buffalohead's art focuses on Indigenous experiences and stories, often subverting imagery of Native people used in popular culture, including Disney's Pocahontas. She often uses metaphors and allegorical images in her work to critique issues within modern society such as gun violence. While her work often includes imagery such as tea parties, and children's cartoon characters, Buffalohead has said that the work is intended to be unsettling. Buffalohead's work also incorporates the use of anthropomorphic animals, mainly coyotes. Buffalohead is a mixed media artist, and works in many different mediums, including oil paints, birch bark, porcupine quills, and printmaking.

Solo exhibitions

Buffalohead has been the recipient of several awards, including the McKnight Foundation Fellowship for Visual Arts, a Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant, and the Minnesota State Arts Board for Visual Artists.

Collections

Her work is included in the collection of the Walker Art Museum.