Native Artist to Represent US at Venice Biennale

By Sandra Hale Schulman. Special to ICT.

Celebrated Indigenous artist Jeffrey Gibson has been selected to represent the United States at the 60th Venice Biennale in Italy next year in a solo exhibition at the U.S. Pavilion that was commissioned by SITE Santa Fe and the Portland Art Museum in Oregon.

The Biennale, held in Venice, Italy, is considered to be the most prestigious art fair in the global art market and is often referred to as the "Olympics of the art world."

Gibson, a citizen of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, is the first Indigenous artist to represent the U.S. with a solo exhibition in the 129-year history of the Venice Biennale.

The Biennale will provide international audiences with the first major opportunity to experience Gibson's work outside the U.S.

"It's something that I have dreamed about doing," Gibson told ICT from his studio in upstate New York. "It is a dream come true."

The exhibition is also the first to be co-commissioned and co-curated by a Native curator, Kathleen Ash-Milby, Navajo, the Portland Art Museum's curator of Native American art, along with co-curators Louis Grachos, Phillips Executive Director of SITE Santa Fe, and Abigail Winograd, an independent curator.

"Throughout his career, Jeffrey has challenged us to look at the world differently through his innovative and vibrant work," Ash-Milby said in a statement. "His inclusive and collaborative approach is a powerful commentary on the influence and persistence of Native American cultures within the United States and globally, making him the ideal representative for the United States at this moment."

The exhibit will be on view starting April 20, 2024, and will run through Nov. 24, 2024, at the U.S. Pavilion, a Palladian-style building designed in 1930 by renowned architects William Adams Delano and Chester Holmes Aldrich. It houses the American official exhibits during the fair.

Gibson, who lives and works near Hudson, New York, made a powerful impact with his beaded punching bags earlier in his career and has continued to knock out the art world with vibrant paintings, sculpture, and installations.

His work is included in many permanent collections, including in the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, National Gallery of Canada, and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

Recent solo exhibitions include "This Burning World: Jeffrey Gibson," (ICA San Francisco, 2022), "Jeffrey Gibson: The Body Electric" (SITE Santa Fe, 2022), "Jeffrey Gibson: INFINITE INDIGENOUS QUEER LOVE" (deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, 2022), and "Jeffrey Gibson: Like A Hammer" (Denver Art Museum, 2018).

The U.S. has previously featured Native arts in the pavilion, including a Native American Gallery in 1932 that included a rustic display of a home with Native art, textiles and pottery.

Other Native artists have been included in later years and will be part of the story presented with Gibson's exhibition at Venice Biennale, officials said.

'Working with color'

Gibson's approach to art is defined by his international upbringing in the U.S., Korea, and Germany. As the son of a retired civil employee of the U.S. Army, he found solace and friendship in music, particularly punk and rave music, and in the powwow traditions of his intertribal Native heritage.

Resisting static notions of what people believe Native American art looks like, he combines Native traditions with modern language, often using words to claim personal identity, culture, history, and international social narratives.

An exhibition the size, scale and importance of the Biennale takes a year of planning.

"We've been working on the proposal now for about 10 months," Gibson told ICT. "I knew that I wanted to work with Kathleen Ash-Milby. We've known each other for over 20 years at this point. So, we got together, and we started looking at works of mine from the past.

The building Gibson will be working in has four galleries that are 5,000 to 6,000 square feet. The exterior adds another couple of thousand square feet.

"I'll be working with color," he said. "There'll be some sculptures with beadwork and textiles and there'll be paintings. There'll be some video work, and then we will turn the courtyard into a space that will have some performance developments."

As for how he feels to be the first indigenous artist representing the U.S. with a sole exhibition, Gibson said it's been a process.

"It's something that I've negotiated my whole life, my whole career," he said. "I knew early on that I felt like I had to make a decision whether I wanted to put that forward and identify as a Native artist or not. And I made the decision that I did want to identify as a Native artist, personally because so much of what I do is informed by me being a Native Indigenous person, the things that I've seen in my family in powwows when I was younger, and the things that I pay attention to.

"But also, I feel like it would be a missed opportunity not to carry that with me. So yeah, it's never been a question for me. What happens next is that it's inevitable, right? The first Native artist, first Indigenous artist to represent the U.S. That's the way we've talked about it to people for whom that's important, and that's fine with me."

Gibson hopes the ensuing publicity will hinge on more than his Native roots. While he is excited, he knows what he is getting into.

"I've been a few times before, so I'm familiar with the Venice Biennale but going as the U.S. artist will be different," he said. "I'm glad that Kathleen in particular is with me because we've known each other for a very long time. It's been a lot of work to get to this point to see the proposal process ... I will probably be very nervous at a lot of points. It's also very exciting."

Looking ahead

Gibson's proposal includes programming throughout the year on art and Indigenous issues, and he also is set to release a book in August on North American Indigenous contemporary artists, musicians, filmmakers, choreographers, architects, writers, photographers and designers.

"I'm not the most extroverted person, I can actually get quite shy," Gibson said. "So being in such a public stage also gives me some nerves. But I'll be surrounded by a lot of friends and family during the time that I'm there."

Gibson's installation at SITE Santa Fe last year blew out the room, covering floor to ceiling with art and color that created an immersive impact.

"In Venice, I really want to do something that when someone who knows my work will say, 'Oh, yeah, that's Jeffrey Gibson,' but also is different from previous installations. I want it to be interesting for people to experience. That's important to me. I know my colors make the whole room vibrate, and sometimes I think I go too far with that, but then I never stop. I just keep going."

Gibson will have a book release and signing in Santa Fe during Indian Market at SITE Santa Fe on Aug. 19 for his book, "An Indigenous Present," which showcases diverse approaches to Indigenous concepts, forms and mediums.

"The book is something that I thought about for a really long time," Gibson said. "There's lots of beautiful books out in the world about contemporary art. But when it comes to contemporary Native art, I feel like the images are used as illustrations for academic essays that are explaining the work and explaining how it originates from traditional cultures.

"I wanted a big, beautiful book that showed artists who I've been paying attention to, who I think are making really provocative, important work," he said. "We did interviews with all of the artists. We selected the works. I'm proud of our contributors. I'm proud of the artists and I feel like it's great timing for it to come out. All of these artists are exhibiting now so you can actually learn about them in the book, and then you'll also be able to see them in the world."

Clarification: Artist Jeffrey Gibson is the first Native American artist to have a solo exhibition at the U.S. Pavilion for Venice Biennale.