Project Type: Portfolio

We Need A Hero-Holly Wilson

We Need A Hero

WE NEED A HERO

2015-21, 100” x 144” x 8.5”, (site sets size), Unique Cast Bronze with Patina

This boy stands tall ready to defend his world. He represents all our children, the children we are to protect and care for in our world. The airplanes are their messages going out into the world. These messages both large and small are their stories, some will survive, and some will not go very far. The bombs represent messages that are incoming from both people and society on a daily basis. The blue bombs are called “Dumb Dumbs” and used just for practice and have no explosives while the white ones with a yellow ring indicate that they are highly explosive and may cause much destruction. What comes at our children in our society can be very devastating like an explosive tearing at their innocence.

Available

For inquiries, please contact:
The Studio
Mustang, OK 73064 | 405.308.0239

EXHIBITION HISTORY

    • Ancestral Visions, Future Dreams, Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati Ohio (Oct 10-Nov 16, 2025)
    • The Thread that Connects, Spiva Center for the Arts, Joplin Missouri (January 14 – March 4)
    • On Turtle’s Back, Pauly Friedman Art Gallery, Misericordia University, Dallas, Pennsylvania (September 8 – October 11, 2022)
    • Upturned Flower That Travels, The Volland Store, Alma, Kansas (November 6 – December 5, 2021 )
    • On Turtle’s Back, Dunedin Fine Art Center, Dunedin, FL (Sept 13, 2019 -December 23, 2019)
    • On Turtle’s Back, Museum of Contemporary Native Art, Santa Fe NM (May 25, 2018-January 27, 2019)
    • Holly Wilson: Talk Story, C.N. Gorman Museum, University of California-Davis (January 9-March 16, 2018)
    • Four by Four 2016: Midwest Invitational Exhibition, Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, Missouri (September 10 – December 4, 2016)
    • A Foot in Two Worlds, Oklahoma Contemporary, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (June 18 – August 21, 2015)

 

We Need a Hero-v2-Holly Wilson
We Need a Hero

We Need A Hero-Holly Wilson

 

 

 

We Need A Hero-Holly Wilson
We Need A Hero
Springfield Art Museum “We Need a Hero” by Holly Wilson
Seven Sides of the Self-2mg-Holly Wilson

Seven Sides of the Self

Seven Sides of the Self

2020, 60″ x 48″ x 4″, Crayola Crayon, Birch Panel

The way we see others and how one is seen has been a subject that I have had in my life since I was small. I am both Native American and Caucasian but growing up I felt more times than I care to count that I was not enough of one or the other and that pull made me question all parts of myself. If I did not look like _____ could I be ______? Where did I fit if I was not a part of this or that group? I have had conversations with many that are from other races and that too was a struggle as well. Is my skin too dark or not dark enough, the texture of my hair or the accent that I speak with?

All of this history, this past came to a head one day while getting my children ready for school we were pulling together pencils, folders, colored pencils, and crayons. They had to have 4 sets of 24 crayons each and we had leftovers from sets of the past years, some colors had never been used, and we were combining them together so we’d know how many new boxes would be required. The kids were talking about their friends at the new school and friends from their past school. In the conversation, they were describing the children “the girl with the yellow hair, the boy with the brown skin”, in a very casual descriptive manner with no malice to the differences.

This made me think more about how we see people and how one is judged. The smell of the crayons, the vivid colors, and the thoughts of my youth brought me to the crayon project. How we change in our viewpoints of people, and how we judge people based on race and color. We are all one below that surface, that surface of the skin, no matter the color, the shape, or the origin. I think if we could see ourselves as all the colors in the crayon box in all the shades we would be kinder we would be able to feel if just for a moment another’s life and our world could change in such a way that kids don’t worry about if they are too light or too dark or if their hair is the right texture to belong and they could feel accepted as the person they are. There are 7 girls and each girl is made from 7 colors in a Crayola Crayon box making a total of 49 girls.

Sold

For inquiries, please contact:
MA Doran Gallery
3509 S. Peoria Avenue | Tulsa, OK 74105 | 918.748.8700

Seven Sides of the Self

 

Seven Sides of the Self-detail 2-2mg-Holly Wilson
Seven Sides of the Self
Here-Holly Wilson

Here

In a strategic trickster twist, I feature children, often masked, as a tool to bring the viewer into my work. Masks are multi-layered. They are a mechanism to hide or obscure our true intentions, acting as a wall between us and the world. Masks are also agents of transformation, powerful and sometimes dangerous.

HERE

Archival Color Photograph
mounted on 1/4″ plexi with museum mount
36″ x 24″

1-5 edition

For inquiries, please contact: The Studio

 

 

Bloodline The Matriarchs-Holly Wilson

Bloodline: The Matriarch

Bloodline: The Matriarchs

2017, 29” x 11.5’ x 9”, Unique Cast Bronze with Patina, Cedar, and Steel

The figures walk across a cedar tree base that is cut lengthwise exposing the rough center revealing the lines that show its life and history. Growing up, my mother would use cedar to purify our home, release spirits, and chase away bad dreams. That smell for me is home. I de-barked the exterior but kept the curve of the tree and its raw surface. You see the figures walking through time—their life above and the tree’s life below.

The Cigar Figures come from a childhood Native American story that my mother told of the “Stick People.” The “Stick People” would run through the night and call your name; if you went with them, you were never heard from again. She never described the figures and I was always drawn to the idea of what they looked like. The Cigar Figures are my reimagining of that story, now a story of family and my past—a complicated narrative of loss, survival, and resilience. The figures are made from real cigars and found sticks cast in bronze. The faces are of the ancestors from my past as far back as I can trace.

There are sections for each generation, beginning with my children. Though I only have two, there are five figures. Each life is counted and the children who did not survive are remembered with a place on the wood in history; their forms small and their heads bowed. Next, I have my section with my sisters and brother followed by my mother’s history. When hung, the light casts a shadow of the figures on the wall. This shadow represents memory for me. Like a shadow, these memories cannot be held, and in the end, we are all only a shadow in history, shadows on this earth.”

Sold Through the Studio

In the Collection of Virginia Museum of Fine Art, 200 N. Boulevard Richmond, VA 23220

Exhibition History

  • Hear My Voice: Native American Art of the Past and Present, Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond VA (August 19-November 26, 2017)
  • Hear My Voice: Native American Art of the Past and Present, Taubman Museum, Roanoke, Virginia (September 28 – January 6, 2018)
  • Hear My Voice: Native American Art of the Past and Present, Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, Winchester, Virginia (Feb 17 – July 22, 2018)
Bloodline The Matriarchs-Holly Wilson
Bloodline: The Matriarchs

Bloodline The Matriarchs-Holly Wilson
Bloodline: The Matriarchs

Should I Stay or Should I Go

SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO

2012, 8.75″ x 22″ x 4″, Unique Cast Bronze with Patina, and African Mahogany

There are times and situations that hold us frozen and locked almost unable to make the decision of whether to stay or to go.

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For inquiries, please contact:
MA Doran Gallery
3509 S. Peoria Avenue | Tulsa, OK 74105 | 918.748.8700

Exhibition History

  • Conversations: Eiteljorg Native Art Fellowship, Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis IN (November 14, 2015-February 14, 2016)
  • Art Now 2012, Curator Romy Owens, Eleanor Kirkpatrick Gallery, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 2012

I AM NOT DONE YET - by Holly Wilson

I Am Not Done Yet

I AM NOT DONE YET

2015, 27″ x 10″ x 11″, Unique Cast Bronze with Patina, and Flex Cord

The first row of origami cranes are white for hope, the second row are red for passion, and the top row are black for our fears.

Sold
For inquiries, please contact:
MA Doran Gallery
3509 S. Peoria Avenue | Tulsa, OK 74105 | 918.748.8700

I AM NOT DONE YET - by Holly Wilson

I AM NOT DONE YET - BY HOLLY WILSON

Two Sides of the Self-Red and Yellow-sm-Holly Wilson

Two Sides of the Self: Red and Yellow

Two Sides of the Self: Red and Yellow

Crayola Crayons on Panel, 8” x 8” x 2”, 2021

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Currently on view in a Solo Exhibition
“On Turtle’s Back”
September 8 – October 11, 2022
Pauly Friedman Art Gallery
Misericordia University
301 Lake Street
Dallas, PA 18612
1.570.674.8420

For inquiries, please contact:
The Studio
Mustang, OK 73064 | 405.308.0239