Richard E. Nephew (Turtle Clan, Seneca Nation, born 1957)

Richard Nephew’s diminutive sculpture, The Birth of Good and Evil (1988) made of Iroquois alabaster tackles an immense concept. The Seneca artist illustrates moral duality through the Haudenosaunee story of “Good” being born naturally, while “Evil” emerges aberrantly from the side of the same birth mother. The self-taught sculptor stated: “My work reflects my existence as a contemporary Seneca-Iroquois artist living within a contemporary American society. It deals with a broad spectrum of concerns that are both traditional and modern.”