2022-2023 Atrium Commission

In his immersive Atrium installation, South Dakota-based Oglala-Sioux artist Marty Two Bulls, Jr. critiques consumption culture, using the metaphor of the American Bison, one of the first American resources consumed almost to extinction. The amorphic Bisons emerge from a mess of detritus: paper and Tyvek cutouts, soda cans, milk jugs, and more. Two Bulls, Jr. reflects on consumerism by creating a wasteland resulting from a disconnection with nature and ancestral forms of knowledge.

Marty Two Bulls Jr. is an artist and educator based in Rapid City, SD. Two Bulls is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and was raised in the high plains of South Dakota. Two Bulls comes from a family of diverse artists. His father, Marty Two Bulls Sr., is an accomplished artist and was Two Bulls’ first art instructor. Two Bulls grew up in his father’s studio where he learned the fundamentals of sculpture, illustration, graphic design and most importantly how to make a living as a creative person. Two Bulls eventually went on to study printmaking and ceramics at The Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM where he earned a Bachelors in Fine Arts in 2011. After graduation, Two Bulls spent several years in Santa Fe developing his art practice and working in contemporary art galleries where he worked with a plethora of contemporary artists from around the world. In 2017 he was offered a full time faculty position with Oglala Lakota College (OLC) to teach art. Two Bulls jumped at the opportunity to return to his homelands and work with his tribal community. Since returning home, Two Bulls has created a Graphic Arts program at OLC and continues to work as a positive force for the arts in his communities both near and far. Two Bulls has exhibited his artwork in galleries and museums both nationally and internationally with works in several museum permanent collections.