Wendy Red Stars new photography is about generational inheritances and adaptations, specifically matrilineal relationships in Crow culture.
Wendy Red Star's new photography is about generational inheritances and adaptations, specifically matrilineal relationships in Crow culture. Images courtesy of the artist

Portland-based artist Wendy Red Star is the winner of this year's Betty Bowen Award, which recognizes Northwest artists. The award is administered by Seattle Art Museum and carries a prize of $15,000. You may remember Red Star from 2014's Bumbershoot, where she curated the festival’s first all-Native contemporary art show.

Dawn Cerny and Mark Mitchell won recognition awards of $2,500 each. There'd been five finalists, including Evan Baden and Sadie Wechsler, from a pool of 446 applicants from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

The last time an artist with indigenous heritage won the award was in 2005, when it went to Portland's Marie Watt, who works with blankets. It's also rare that a photography-based artist wins; the last time for that to happen was in 2008, when the award went to Seattle's Isaac Layman.

A list of all the winners since the award's inception in 1979 is here.

Along the left side: Medicine Crow, the crow chief, looked like a devil in his war bonnet of feathers, furs, and buffalo horns. Lt. John Bourke
Along the left side: "'Medicine Crow, the crow chief, looked like a devil in his war bonnet of feathers, furs, and buffalo horns.' Lt. John Bourke"