Get to know Native American artist Brent Greenwood, an Honored One with 'Big Uncle Energy'

Brandy McDonnell, The Oklahoman
·8 min read

Over the past 25 years, Oklahoman Brent Greenwood has literally made his mark as a Native American artist.

"You look at my paintings today, one thing I think is consistent is my mark-making, because my foundation is drawing. ... I'll loosely sketch out some of my paintings before I even work on them, but it's the painting that ends up dictating the feel or flow of what I'm going to do," he said.

An esteemed contemporary painter and mixed-media artist, Greenwood, who is Chickasaw and Ponca, has developed a distinctly colorful style over the last quarter-century. The fine arts director for the Chickasaw Nation also has sketched out an influential career as an arts educator and administrator.

Greenwood, 52, was recognized as the 2024 Red Earth Honored One during Oklahoma City's 38th Annual Red Earth Festival, a celebration of Native American art and culture. The Honored One distinction is bestowed each year on a master visual artist who's had a significant influence on the Native art community.

Red Earth Honored One Brent Greenwood speaks to people at his booth during the Red Earth Festival at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Friday, March 22, 2024.
Red Earth Honored One Brent Greenwood speaks to people at his booth during the Red Earth Festival at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Friday, March 22, 2024.

"His work is very distinctive ... and he's been very active with his work for at least 20 years," said fellow Oklahoma Native American artist Yonavea Hawkins, the president of the Red Earth Inc. board of directors.

"And he's been a really good mentor for young artists and has been advocating for Native American art in our communities. ... He's just really committed to that."

Along with showing his work at last month's Red Earth Festival, Greenwood is featured in the traveling exhibit “Collective Wisdom,” opening Friday, April 5, at the Jacobson House Native Art Center in Norman. He also is participating in a panel on "Big Uncle Energy" at IndigiPop X, aka the Indigenous Pop Expo, April 12-14 at OKC's First Americans Museum; coordinating children's activities for the Artesian Arts Festival April 13 next to the Artesian Hotel in Sulphur; and doing a live painting at the Mvskoke Art Market April 20-21 at River Spirit Casino Resort in Tulsa.

"Since being notified of being selected as the Honored One, it's been like a whirlwind. I'm still very humbled and just overwhelmed by the experience," Greenwood said. "I think that award used to be called the 'elder of the year,' so everyone's giving me flak about that, but it's all just good-natured jokes."

People look at stickers by Red Earth Honored One Brent Greenwood during the Red Earth Festival at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Friday, March 22, 2024.
People look at stickers by Red Earth Honored One Brent Greenwood during the Red Earth Festival at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Friday, March 22, 2024.

How does the Oklahoma artist's style mix Native traditions, graffiti and pop culture?

Born in Midwest City, Greenwood credited his parents, the late Robert and Joyce Greenwood, with encouraging his passion for art from an early age.

"I started out with graffiti. I'm a kid of the '80s and grew up around that hip-hop culture. ... The colors were vibrant, they popped, and there was just something about it that really drew me. In graffiti, the energy, the movement, I think that translated into my easel painting and my mixed-media works," he said.

"Going back to the cave paintings, those were the first graffiti artists. They were taking bird bones and blowing pigment through those bird bones onto their hands, and you got a negative image of a handprint on the wall. ... So, the beauty of that was being explored way back since the dawn of man."

He studied art at Oklahoma City University but soon transferred to the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he graduated in 1994 with an associate of fine arts in two-dimensional art. Greenwood completed his bachelor's degree in 1997 at OCU, receiving there last year the Petree College of Arts & Sciences Distinguished Alumni award.

"As a practicing Chickasaw artist, he demonstrates that Indigenous culture is not something just in the past, it's a real, living, evolving thing. Native peoples value and honor the past, but Native culture is not something in a museum, it's something living and vital,” said Stephen Prilliman, faculty adviser for OCU’s Native American Society student group, in a statement.

Oklahoma artist Brent Greenwood displays his large-scale painting of a bison head at the March 22 Red Earth Festival at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. The Chickasaw and Ponca artist painted it live at a November 2023 OKC Thunder game at Paycom Center in honor of Native American Heritage Night.
Oklahoma artist Brent Greenwood displays his large-scale painting of a bison head at the March 22 Red Earth Festival at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. The Chickasaw and Ponca artist painted it live at a November 2023 OKC Thunder game at Paycom Center in honor of Native American Heritage Night.

Although his work is rooted in the "traditional Oklahoma style" of Native art with its 2D perspective, flat colors and prominent lines, Greenwood's style mixes in his love for contemporary art, graffiti and popular culture. In 2019, he spray-painted a mural of Baby Yoda on the side of the Ada News building, and at Red Earth, Greenwood showcased the large-scale bison he live-painted last year at Paycom Center during an OKC Thunder's Native American Heritage Night game.

"When I started doing live paints, that really opened me back up to that inner creativity and just being loose with my painting, just letting that creativity flow," he said.

"It's like mark-making: It's that spontaneity and that action (of) painting. It's capturing that raw energy that people see right then and there — and then they're part of that process. ... It's drawing them in for another level of connection."

People look at art by Red Earth Honored One Brent Greenwood during the March 22 Red Earth Festival at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
People look at art by Red Earth Honored One Brent Greenwood during the March 22 Red Earth Festival at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

How does his day job with the Chickasaw Nation help people connect with the tribe's culture?

Seven years ago, Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby appointed Greenwood to direct the tribe's fine arts programs.

"In the 2000s, I went into some volunteer work with the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition; I was on their board for some time, just doing workshops and working with other artists and collaborating. I found joy and passionate in sharing my art and sharing what I know through my stories and my narratives as an artist," said Greenwood, who previously worked for 19 years as a rural mail carrier for the U.S. Postal service.

"That led to me working with children and in Indian education in the public school sector ... and teaching our youth the arts and cultural aspects of our lifeways."

Red Earth Honored One Brent Greenwood speaks to people on March 22 at his booth during the Red Earth Festival at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
Red Earth Honored One Brent Greenwood speaks to people on March 22 at his booth during the Red Earth Festival at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

He was tapped as a presenter and later a teacher with the Chickasaw Nation's summer arts academy, a two-week immersive visual and performing arts program that serves about 250 Chickasaw students each year, leading up to his appointment as the tribe's fine arts director.

"We do arts outreach and community outreach with our citizens, facilitate arts classes with our citizens by way of after-school arts programming, artists workshops, and then our big event in the summer, which is the Chickasaw Arts Academy," he said.

"I like to say we find diamonds in the rough in there, because they really, truly do find their passion by being exposed to the arts. ... There's a lot of kids that have gone on to pursue careers in the arts and ultimately come back to work with us."

Red Earth Honored One Brent Greenwood during the March 22 Red Earth Festival at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
Red Earth Honored One Brent Greenwood during the March 22 Red Earth Festival at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

How does the Oklahoma artist embody 'Big Uncle Energy?'

To do his day job, Greenwood divides his time between his home in Edmond, his tribe's headquarters in Ada and his art studio in Sulphur. Fortunately, his whole family is devoted to art: His wife, Kennetha Greenwood, is an award-winning Otoe-Missouria artist known for her graphic designs and beadwork, and both their children are active in the arts. Their daughter, Anevay Greenwood, will teach a theater performance class at this summer's Chickasaw Arts Institute, while their son, Miwese Greenwood, will assist with a culinary arts class.

Along with creating work as an artist and coordinating fine arts programs for the Chickasaw Nation, Greenwood is chairman of the Oscar Jacobson Foundation, which operates the nonprofit Jacobson House Native Art Center. He and his wife also are among the 31 Indigenous artists spotlighted in the traveling exhibit "Collective Wisdom," featuring collaborative works in figurative, abstract, and traditional Native styles.

To mark the exhibit's debut at the Jacobson House, the opening celebration at 6 p.m. April 5 will honor acclaimed Caddo and Potawatomi potter Jeraldine “Jeri” Redcorn, one of the arts center's founding board members. Jacobson House board member Scott George, the Osage composer nominated for a best original song Oscar for his work on the movie "Killers of the Flower Moon," will help honor Redcorn at the event.

On April 14, Greenwood will join Redcorn's son, "Killers of the Flower Moon" actor Yancey Red Corn, as participants on a panel of "huncles," or "hot uncles," at IndigiPop X. The "Big Uncle Energy" panel will delve into fandom in Indian Country, after both Red Corn and Greenwood became memes on Native social media this year.

"It's going to be totally organic, and I'm sure there will be a lot of laughter," Greenwood said with a chuckle. "I'm along for the ride, because I've no idea what direction it's going to take. But I'm sure it's gonna be fun and exciting."

'Collective Wisdom' at Jacobson House

IndigiPop X

Artesian Arts Festival

Mvskoke Art Market

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma Native American artist is both Honored One and 'hot uncle'