Gift of the artist, 2021

Two worn leather cowboy boots full of dried flowers stand on top of a circular slice of raw tree log. The log has been decorated with radiant white lines. Its outer rim has been colored blue. Gold leaf runs across the top of the log and onto the heels of the cowboy boots. On the wall behind the sculpture a cowboy hat and a jacket hang from the prongs of an antler. A circle of glowing red neon surrounds the antler.

“I wanted to explore the cowboy because of my own personal lineage, because of what it means to my family heritage. My mother’s side of the family are cowboys, Black cowboys. How that works within identity, and how I understand that identity and how it impacts my perception of my race and ethnicity and place as an American, and my place as a male-bodied person in the United States, and a Black-bodied person in the United States.”

Emmanuel Muñoz, “Brent Holmes in Conversation with Emmanuel Muñoz,” Brent Holmes: Behold a Pale Horse (Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, 2021)