Sculptor John Coleman has created a lot of larger-than-life figures as one of the premier sculptors in the world of Western art.
And he’s become one himself, with decades of some of the most popular work featured at the Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition and Sale here at The Cowboy.
Coleman recently announced that he would no longer be participating in Western art shows, so this year’s Prix de West, his 20th, was his last.
We thought we’d catch up with him, with a focus on finding out what happened to his creation “Victory! Plenty Coups.” The bronze was featured in the 2025 Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition and Sale, and a video of it shared by The Cowboy went absolutely viral last summer.
At last check, the video had more than 6.8 million views and nearly 35,000 comments.
In all, Coleman said he made five life-sized castings of the sculpture.
The first was donated by collector Howie Alper to the Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg, Arizona.
“We are delighted to add such a magnificent monumental bronze to Desert Caballeros’ already world-class collection. John Coleman’s artistry has always fascinated us, which is why we have become Coleman’s No. 1 collector since 1994 with 135 No. 1 castings in our collection,” Alper told the Wickenburg Sun. “This is the No. 1 cast in this edition. My wife and I have always purchased John’s first casting, agreed over a 1994 handshake. We have formed a treasured lifelong friendship.”
The second casting, according to Coleman, was installed outside the Crow Reservation on the edge of the Little Bighorn River. Plenty Coups, the subject of the piece, was the principal chief of the Crow Tribe who lived from 1848 to 1932.
The third casting is being placed at an Equine Therapy Center in Wickenburg, Arizona, and another is in a private collection in Oregon. Coleman said the fifth life-size casting is still available.
Coleman was a part of the 20th Prix de West this year and was honored with the Buyers’ Choice Award for his sculpture “Wedding at Crow Fair.”
It was after this year’s show that he made the announcement about his future.
“I’m going to be 77 years old my next birthday, and it occurred to me that I’ve been doing the Prix de West show for 20 years, and I’ve learned a lot from the show, as I learned a lot from a lot of my shows. But that one in particular, because I think it’s the most important one,” Coleman said in a video posted on Facebook. “But I made the decision I’m not going to do shows at all anymore. I’m going to up my workload, I think, but if I don’t have a destination for everything I do, I think it’s going to free me up.”
