Uploaded August 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Rhonda Holy Bear is a Lakota artist and story keeper. An expert in traditional dollmaking techniques, Holy Bear has been awarded “Best in Show” three times in major Native art competitions for "Lakota Honor - Sees The Horses Woman - SuWakan Ayutan Win," a work recently acquired by the Art Institute. Born in 1959 on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota, Holy Bear moved to Chicago as a teenager, where she studied Plains Indian culture by visiting the Field Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago.
In this conversation, Lakota artist Rhonda Holy Bear and curator Andrew Hamilton discuss her intricate figurative sculptures and the cross-generational stories that inspire her work.
Rhonda Holy Bear is a Lakota artist and story keeper. An expert in traditional dollmaking techniques, Holy Bear has been awarded “Best in Show” three times in major Native art competitions for "Lakota Honor - Sees The Horses Woman - SuWakan Ayutan Win," a work recently acquired by the Art Institute. Born in 1959 on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota, Holy Bear moved to Chicago as a teenager, where she studied Plains Indian culture by visiting the Field Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago.
In this conversation, Lakota artist Rhonda Holy Bear and curator Andrew Hamilton discuss her intricate figurative sculptures and the cross-generational stories that inspire her work.
