About this Event
Raven Halfmoon and Cecilia Alemani will discuss Halfmoon’s commission, West Side Warrior, located on the High Line at Little West 12th Street.
Raven Halfmoon’s practice ranges from torso-scaled to colossal-sized stoneware, bronze, and stone sculptures that honor her Caddo heritage. Born and raised in Oklahoma, she was first introduced to traditional Caddo pottery techniques by a Caddo elder. The Caddo Nation is a Tribal Nation whose ancestral homelands encompass what is now large parts of Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. Caddos are known for their engraved, incised, and distinctly styled pottery, and hand-built various vessels using a coil method. Halfmoon uses this knowledge to inform her contemporary practice, combining these traditional techniques with references to current pop culture. With inspiration that ranges from ancient earthwork construction and Indigenous pottery to the monumental sculptures on Easter Island, Halfmoon examines the intersection of tradition, history, gender, and personal experience. She fuses Caddo imagery, such as stars or symbols representing the Red River, with contemporary gestures—tagging and glazing her work like a graffiti artist. Halfmoon’s expressive surfaces, marked with her deep finger impressions, assert her presence for all those who see the work, countering a history of silencing Indigenous voices.
For the High Line, Halfmoon presents West Side Warrior, a towering bust of a Native female horse rider. Historically, busts have been commissioned to commemorate aristocrats, rulers, or military leaders. Halfmoon subverts these traditions, depicting an unidentified Indigenous woman with facial tattoos wearing a cowboy hat. While the work is a nod to the artist’s heritage and connection to the American West, it also references the High Line’s history.
In the mid-19th century, the railway company employed men on horseback, called the West Side Cowboys, in an effort to reduce rates of pedestrian injury and death from street-level freight trains. Eventually, the cowboys were phased out, and the freight line was elevated off the street—creating what we now call the High Line.
Artist bio
Raven Halfmoon (b. 1991, Caddo Nation) lives and works in Norman, Oklahoma. Halfmoon has held solo exhibitions at institutions including, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri (2025) (forthcoming); Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York (2025); The Contemporary Austin, Austin, Texas (2025); Bemis Center, Omaha, Nebraska (2024); Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut (2023); Art Omi Sculpture Park, Ghent, New York (2022); and Missoula Art Museum, Missoula, Montana (2022). She has participated in major international group exhibitions, including, Once Within a Time, the 12th SITE SANTA FE International, Santa Fe, New Mexico (2025); Several Eternities in Day: Brownness and the Spiritual Turn in Contemporary Art, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California (2025) (forthcoming); Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri (2024); To Take Shape and Meaning: Form and Design in Contemporary American Indian Art, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina (2024); The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. (2023); Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art and Self Determination since 1969, Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale, New York (2023); Material Issues: Strategies in 21st Century Craft, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, Utah (2021); and Meditation on a Bone, Heide Museum of Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia (2019).
What happens if it rains?
This event takes place indoors and will happen rain or shine.
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By attending this event, you agree that photos and/or video footage of you may be taken, and you grant your permission to Friends of the High Line and its agents/licensees to use such photos/footage for promotional and other purposes.
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Support
Lead support for High Line Art comes from Amanda and Don Mullen. Major support is provided by Shelley Fox Aarons and Philip E. Aarons, The Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston, and Charina Endowment Fund.
High Line Art is supported, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council, under the leadership of Speaker Julie Menin.
Major support of High Line Art digital infrastructure is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Additional support is provided by Agnes Gund.
Special thanks to Salon 94.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Friends of the High Line Headquarters, The Diller-Von Furstenburg Building, New York, United States
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