Truman Lowe grew up near Black River Falls, Wisc., in a Ho-Chunk (formerly Winnebago) community. Surrounded by the material traditions of his ancestors and deeply affected by the natural environment, Lowe learned very early that artwork can express the relationship between nature and culture. The values and techniques he learned from his community find voice in the wood and metal he shapes into abstractions of natural forms – birds, rivers, waterfalls, trees. Combining traditional forms and materials with contemporary art-world idioms, Lowe’s sculpture speaks to the importance of preserving cultural heritage.
Lowe holds a degree in art education and an MFA in sculpture. He has been a professor of art at the University of Wisconsin, Madison for 11 years. He is the recipient of numerous awards and grants for his scholarship and his art, including a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Fellowship and a Ford Foundation Doctoral Fellowship. Lowe has exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions, including the White House Sculpture Exhibition, the Minneapolis Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum and the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. He currently is curator of contemporary art for the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution.
http://www.eiteljorg.org/ejm_Collections/Collections/FellowshipForNativeAmericanFineArt/TheFellows/details.asp?id=1031
