An Indigenous Present

An Indigenous Present celebrates an increasingly visible and expanding field of Indigenous contemporary art. 

Co-curated by artist Jeffrey Gibson (member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent) and independent curator Jenelle Porter, this exhibition emerges from their 2023 landmark publication of the same name. 

Drawing upon the co-curators’ research and the book’s broad range of concepts and forms, the exhibition focuses on the development of abstraction among a group of artists who utilize its multivalent modes to consolidate Indigenous concepts, make experimental process- and materials-based objects, and innovate formal specificity alongside community and custom.​

An Indigenous Present is a thematic exhibition spanning 100 years of contemporary Indigenous art. The exhibition includes new commissions and significant works by 15 artists who use strategies of abstraction to represent personal and collective narratives, describe specific and imagined places, and build upon cultural and aesthetic traditions. Co-organized by artist Jeffrey Gibson and independent curator Jenelle Porter, the exhibition offers an expansive consideration of Indigenous art practices that highlights a continuum of elders and emerging makers, and premieres newly commissioned site-specific works by Raven Chacon, Caroline Monnet, and Anna Tsouhlarakis.

Credit: Overview from museum website

Image credit:  George Morrison. Three Surrealist Forms, Automatic, 1984. Color pencil, ink, and wash on paper; 17 x 15 in. Courtesy the George Morrison Estate and Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis. © George Morrison Estate