Raven HalfmoonFlags of Our Mothers

Flags of Our Mothers is the first major traveling exhibition for artist Raven Halfmoon. Her practice spans torso-scaled and colossal-sized stoneware sculptures, with some soaring up to twelve feet and weighing over eight hundred pounds. With inspirations that orbit centuries from ancient Indigenous pottery to Moai statues to Land Art, Halfmoon interrogates the intersection of tradition, history, gender, and personal experience.

Halfmoon, who was born and raised in Norman, Oklahoma, learned about ceramics as a teenager from a Caddo elder. Working mainly in portraiture, she handbuilds each work using a coil method. Her surfaces are expressive and show deep finger impressions and dramatic dripping glazes—a physicality that presents her as both maker and matter. She fuses Caddo pottery traditions (a history of making mostly done by women) with more contemporary gestures, often tagging her work as a reference to Caddo tattooing and ancient pottery motifs. Her works reflect stories of the Caddo Nation, specifically her feminist lineage and the power of its complexities.

For this exhibition, organized by The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Halfmoon created some of her largest works to date, including Flagbearer, a three-part stacked ceramic sculpture standing over twelve feet tall.

This exhibition is organized by The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. Curated by Amy Smith-Stewart and Rachel Adams.

Major support for Raven Halfmoon: Flags of Our Mothers is provided by the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation. Generous support is provided by The Aldrich Council; the Amadeo Family; and Ellen and Andrew Celli. Significant support is provided by Diana Bowes and Jim Torrey; Michel Cohen, Collection Montparnasse; Agnes Gund; Henry Moore Foundation; and Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn. Additional support is provided by The Cowles Charitable Trust. The catalogue is supported by the Eric Diefenbach and James-Keith Brown Publications Fund; The Kaleta A. Doolin Foundation; and Kouri + Corrao Gallery. Production support is provided by the Diana Bowes and Jim Torrey Commissions Fund. Preferred Art Logistics Provider: Crozier Fine Arts

Support of Bemis Center's presentation of Raven Halfmoon: Flags of Our Mothers was generously supported, in part, by: Douglas County Visitor Improvement Fund, Mutual of Omaha, Michel Cohen, Collection Montparnasse, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Nebraska Arts Council/Nebraska Cultural Endowment, Omaha Steaks, and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts.