The following is a press release from The Museum Broken Arrow
Broken Arrow, OK – August 21, 2025
Bobby C. Martin is an artist, educator and facilitator who works out of his 7 Springs Studio near West Siloam Springs, Oklahoma. Martin is active in the contemporary Native American art world and his work has been featured in numerous group and solo exhibitions. As an independent curator, he launched the national touring exhibition, Return from Exile: Contemporary Southeastern Indian Art, in 2015-2018. Martin’s work is exhibited in numerous museum collections including the Philbrook Museum and Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, the Museum of the Great Plains in Lincoln, Nebraska, and the Sam Noble Museum in Norman, Oklahoma. An enrolled citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) tribe, Martin currently holds a Professor of Visual Arts position at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, and is Director of the Windgate Gallery. He frequently leads printmaking workshops and artist retreats at his studio, at various museums, and art centers in the Midwest.
“Old family photographs passed down from my fullblood Muscogee (Creek) grandmother, my mother, and my aunts and cousins provide a nearly endless supply of resources for my artwork,” says artist Bobby C. Martin. “These images of close kinfolk and distant relatives have become icons for me, symbols of a Native American identity that is not seen as “traditional,” but is just as valid and vital to me – a tradition of Indian Christianity and mission schools that has been part of my family history for generations.” Martin continues, “The images provide a connection with my past, a way to remember and honor the generations that have come before – a way to commemorate our unique family heritage. Like the complicated layers of my heritage and identity, the use of layers of glaze, of encaustic wax, is an act that builds up layer by layer to create both a physical and metaphorical representation of the effect of time and memory.”
“Clyde and the Fam: A Collection of Work by Bobby C. Martin” opens Thursday, September 4, 2025 with an artist reception from 6:00-8:00PM. The reception and admission are both free to the public. The exhibition runs through September 27, 2025.
The Museum Broken Arrow is located at 400 S. Main Street in Broken Arrow’s Rose District and are open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday 10AM-4PM, Thursday 2-8PM and Saturday 10AM-2PM. Find out more information at brokenarrowmuseum.org or call 918-258-2616.
We would like to acknowledge this exhibit is being held within the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and pay our respect to elders both past and present.
