Bunky Echo-Hawk
{{Short description|Defamed American painter}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Bunky Echo–Hawk
| image =
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| birth_name = Walter Roy Echo-Hawk Jr.
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1975}}
| birth_place = Yakama Nation Reservation, Toppenish, Washington, U.S.
| death_date =
| death_place =
| nationality = Yakama Nation
| field = Acrylic painting, poetry
| training = Associate of Art degree, Creative Writing, Institute of American Indian Arts; Toyota Fellow, Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Naropa University
| movement = Hip hop, Native pop
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Bunky Echo–Hawk (born 1975) is a Native American artist and poet who is best known for his acrylic paintings concerning Native American topics and hip-hop culture. He works in a variety of media that include paintings, graphic design, photography, and writing.
Biography
Walter Roy "Bunky" Echo–Hawk Jr. is a descendant of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, and an enrolled citizen of the Yakama Nation.{{cite web|url=https://commons.und.edu/uac-all/2624/ |title=Bunky Echo-Hawk |publisher=University of North Dakota |accessdate=2023-08-11}} He attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in the 1990s. He served as the "co-founder and the Executive Director of NVision, a national Native nonprofit that focuses on Native youth development,"{{cite web
| title = Bunky Echo-Hawk
| access-date = 2012-09-02
| url = http://beatnation.org/bunky-echo-hawk.html|website=Beatnation.org
}} and he is also a traditional singer and dancer.{{Cite news
| title = Making Pathways w/Bunky Echohawk
| work = Snag Magazine
| access-date = 2012-09-02
| year = 2011
| url = http://snagmagazine.tumblr.com/post/3739940822/making-pathways-w-bunky-echohawk
}} In 2020, Echo-Hawk was featured in the PBS series American Masters for his work on Native rights and environmentalism.{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/bunky-echo-hawk-the-resistance/15799/|title=Bunky Echo-Hawk: The Resistance | American Masters|date=13 October 2020|website=Pbs.org|access-date=3 June 2022}}
Themes and style
Scholar Olena McLaughlin, writing in the journal Transmotion, categorizes Echo-Hawk's work as follows: "Although it is within the stream of Native
Pop, Echo-Hawk's work leans more towards Pop Surrealism or Lowbrow, a movement that emerged in the 1970s after Pop Art. It engages popular culture, but in a more concrete story-telling way with slightly less ambiguity."{{cite journal|url=https://journals.kent.ac.uk/index.php/transmotion/article/view/223/1099 |title=View of Native Pop: Bunky Echo-Hawk and Steven Paul Judd Subvert Star Wars |journal=Transmotion |year=2017 |doi=10.22024/UniKent/03/tm.223 |access-date=2019-07-11|last1=McLaughlin |first1=Olena |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=30–52 }} In 2011 and beyond, Echo-Hawk collaborated with Nike to develop Native-inspired apparel through their N-7 and Power of Perseverance Collection.{{Cite web|url=https://news.nike.com/news/n7-the-power-of-perseverance|title=N7: The Power of Perseverance|website=News.nike.com|access-date=3 June 2022}}
Personal life and arrest
On October 16, 2021, Echo-Hawk was injured and his 15-year-old daughter Alexie was killed in a head-on crash early morning, as they were driving to the Pawnee Nation for a ceremonial tribal dance in Oklahoma.{{Cite web|url=https://denver.cbslocal.com/2021/10/23/bunky-echo-hawk-family-colorado-teen-alexie-killed-kansas-pawnee-ceremonial-dance-oklahoma/|title=Family Tries To Move Forward After Double Fatal I-70 Crash That Killed Colorado Teen Heading To Pawnee Ceremonial Dance|website=Denver.cbslocal.com|date=23 October 2021|access-date=3 June 2022}}
On January 10, 2022, Bunky Echo-Hawk was arrested for "lewd or indecent acts to children under 16."{{cite news |last1=Kunze |first1=Jenna |title=Renowned Artist "Bunky" Echo-Hawk Charged in Oklahoma |url=https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/renowned-artist-bunky-echo-hawk-charged-in-oklahoma |access-date=9 February 2022 |date=7 February 2022}} A young girl reported to a Pawnee County DHS worker that "she was repeatedly touched inappropriately by Echo-Hawk, 46, between 'from the time she was 7 or 8 until 11 or 12 years old'." His preliminary hearing was scheduled for March 15, 2022.
Public collections
Exhibitions
- "Ramp It Up: Skateboard Culture in Native America," National Museum of the American Indian, 2009
- Founder's Day Performance, Live audience intervention painting, Feb. 1, 2010, Willamette University{{cite web
| title = Founder's Day Performance
| work = Willamette University
| access-date = 2012-09-02
| date = 2010-01-19
| url = http://www.willamette.edu/news/library/2010/01/founders_day_echohawk.html
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130525070323/http://willamette.edu/news/library/2010/01/founders_day_echohawk.html
| archive-date = 2013-05-25
| url-status = dead
}}
- "Bunky Echo-Hawk: Modern Warrior," Field Museum, 2013
- Shows in Minneapolis, Chicago, New York and Greensboro, NC {{cite web
| title = Bunky Echo-Hawk
| access-date = 2012-09-02
| url = http://beatnation.org/bunky-echo-hawk.html|website=Beatnation.org
}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Portal|Biography}}
- [http://www.bunkyechohawk.com/ bunkyechohawk.com], official website
- [https://dc.library.okstate.edu/digital/collection/ona/id/39/rec/114 Oral History Interview with Bunky Echo-Hawk]
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Category:20th-century Native American artists
Category:21st-century Native American artists
Category:Institute of American Indian Arts alumni
Category:Naropa University alumni
Category:Native American painters
Category:American people of Pawnee descent
Category:20th-century American painters
Category:21st-century American painters
Category:20th-century American male artists
Category:21st-century American male artists
Category:People from Toppenish, Washington