Meet the M’s Artist Fellow: Cole Redhorse Taylor
Born and raised in Minnesota, Cole Redhorse Taylor (Mdewakanton Dakota and a member of the Prairie Island Indian Community) recently arrived as the M’s artist fellow. He works in many different mediums, including drawing, painting, beadwork, quillwork.
He earned a BFA in fine arts studio from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) and an MA from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe. While in graduate school, he worked on a self-portrait rendered in textiles, evoking the quilt work of African American artist Bisa Butler.
“I am heavily inspired by the artwork left by my ancestors, which was not only beautiful or dynamic, but had a function and use in their everyday lives,” Redhorse Taylor says. “I am also very inspired by the works of the contemporary Native artists who came before me, and also by the ones who I consider my peers.”
Before the M completed its gallery expansion in 2024, Redhorse Taylor was part of a cadre of Native artists and leaders assembled by Dr. Kate Beane, the M’s executive director, to discuss what the future museum could be. “We got together to discuss what we could see here,” he says. “What could the M do for Native artists and Native art and Native students?” His fellowship supplies one answer.
What do you plan to do during your art fellowship at the M?
I’m grateful for the opportunity to have time to work. I hope to continue to work with textiles and portraiture. People have done portrait quilts before. I want to focus on portraits of Dakota people who were living and thriving in Minnesota before our removal.
Many arts people remember a vivid early arts experience. What’s yours?
I have two. I remember being a child in art class and creating illustrations and books. I remember being told or persuaded that I wasn’t an artist because I couldn’t draw a portrait. The attitude was, if it doesn’t look lifelike, you’re not “good” at art. I wasn’t a prodigy. I had fun with art, but I didn’t see myself as an artist.
At 13, I learned beadwork, artwork relative to my people. I didn’t consider it artwork at the time. Those are two moments I was participated in in art-making without thinking of it.
What one artwork in HERE, NOW: Selections from the M’s Permanent Collection makes you curious?
I would say Frank Big Bear’s work, because of how much iconography is thrown at you: visual language that the viewer has to take in from Pop culture, American Pop culture, Americana. It contemporizes the Native community, shows that we experience life in the now. As such a simple piece—but it’s not a simple piece—it’s literally images being thrown at you. But there is a composition to every image.
The other piece that’s inspiring me is the Hmong storytelling cloth. I’m very greatly influenced by how other communities utilize handwork and craft to tell stories and record their lived experiences. It’s a common thread—not a pun—between ethnic groups.
What do you mean by ‘visual language’?
Native people and Indigenous people don’t have traditional written languages. They relied on artwork and images to tell stories. That influences our artwork. It’s how we dress ourselves, our traditional clothing and regalia. Looking at someone, I say: “How do I read that? How do I decipher that?” Frances J. Yellow uses ledger art. Julie Buffalohead uses figures that have specific meaning. Many artists in there [points to galleries] do. You read that piece like a story. It’s how Native people use critical thought with their artwork, what they were creating—What am I trying to tell with this piece?
How will a fellowship at the M advance your professional and artistic goals?
The fellowship at the M, which I’m very grateful for, is allowing me the opportunity to have space to be an artist and to be in space with artwork, as well, in the collection. It will allow me time to create work and foster me as an artist—to “Step into the room.” I also hope to work with the collection to help the M better understand what it’s inherited.
