Charles Rencountre
Charles Rencountre is a member of the Sicaŋġu people — the Kul Wicasa Oyate — from the Lower Brule Reservation in what is today South Dakota. A sculptor whose work spans bronze, wood, stone, and monumental concrete, Rencountre creates art that stands at the intersection of Lakota spiritual tradition and contemporary activism.
Born to Earlwin and Rebecca Rencountre, Charles showed artistic promise from an early age, winning recognition at a county fair poster contest while still in grade school. Growing up in North Rapid City's urban Lakota community, the path to becoming an artist was far from straightforward. After discovering his love for sculpture at Central High School, he made two earlier attempts at formal art education before finally enrolling at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, where he graduated top of his class.
“In my family, they wanted us to go out and get jobs and work construction, or work on a farm, and make money, because that’s how they knew how to do it. The idea of art as a concept, of being an artist, just never was part of the picture.”
Not Afraid to Look
Rencountre's most celebrated work is an eight-foot reinforced concrete sculpture called "Not Afraid to Look." Originally conceived from a series of effigy pipes — forms with roots stretching back to the 17th century — the sculpture was first installed at the Santa Fe Institute for American Indian Arts. Its younger twin was erected at Standing Rock's Sacred Stone Camp in 2016, during the historic NO DAPL water protector gathering.
When the government dismantled the Oceti Sakowin and Sacred Stone camps, they chose not to tear down the sculpture. It remains the only physical evidence of the ten-month gathering, a spiritual expression of untold generations of Lakota — looking outward without fear or malice.
Collaboration
Together with his wife and artistic collaborator, Alicia Marie Rencountre-Da Silva, Charles envisions "Not Afraid to Look" as a global symbol of strength for communities fighting to protect natural resources. The husband-and-wife team has built multiple versions of the monument and continues to work with communities to install the sculpture in places where it is needed.
Charles has also collaborated with Ledger artist Dwayne Wilcox (Oglala Sioux) on "Mixed Medicines," a traveling exhibition that artistically articulates the impact of alcohol and drug abuse on traditional Lakota ceremonies.
Medium & Practice
Rencountre works across a wide range of sculptural media: carved juniper and other woods, cast bronze, alabaster stone, and reinforced concrete for monumental installations. His subjects draw deeply from Lakota spirituality, Indigenous identity, and the collision between traditional ceremony and contemporary life. Works like the "Lakota Christ," "Lakota Madonna," and "Yaqui Christ" reflect a profound engagement with sacred imagery reimagined through an Indigenous lens.