Press Release
In February, an unprecedented survey of contemporary Native American art curated by Jaune Quick-
International ongoing exhibitions
elebrating the breadth of groundbreaking contemporary art made by Native artists, Indigenous Identities surfaces a series of guiding concepts—land, social, tribal, and political—that unify the works on view and speak to the permeability of art in Native American life. Featuring jewelry, ceramics, beadwork, and basketry alongside painting, sculpture, and installation, the exhibition confronts the idea that traditional forms of making are artifacts of a past life and acknowledges these practices and their contemporary resonance.
In curating Indigenous Identities, Smith invited artists to help select the work that would represent them in the exhibition, a reciprocal curatorial practice that subverts the more typical institutional processes that are prescriptive and predetermined. The resulting exhibition is expansive in the range of works presented, and in the artists whose voices are included. Furthering a Native Art history that is non-
Exhibition highlights include:
Confronting historical erasure, Marie Watt’s Skywalker/Skyscraper (Twins) (2020), an example of her well-
Nicholas Galanin’s photograph Never Forget (2021) references the iconic Hollywood sign to form a powerful reminder of Indigenous sovereignty and the ongoing Land Back movement.
G. Peter Jemison’s painting Red Power (1973) is a celebration of the multiplicities of Indigenous identities and modes of resistance.
Engaging ceramic and metals, Rose B. Simpson’s X-
Jeffrey Gibson’s multimedia painting She Never Dances Alone (2021) honors the strength and persistence of Indigenous women and is an example of Gibson’s work to make visible the ongoing crisis of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW).
Recent photographic work by Cara Romero, including Arla Lucia (2019) and Starlight, Starbright (2023), breaks down monolithic stereotypes of Indigenous women.
Jackie Larson Bread’s Triangular Beaded Trinket Box, Chief Joseph (2007) showcases the artist’s distinctive style of pictorial beadwork that honors some of her Blackfeet ancestors.
Cannupa Hanska-
The exhibition, publication, and correlating public programs are supported by National Endowment for the Arts, Nissan Foundation, the Middlesex County Board of County Commissioners through a grant award from the Middlesex County Cultural and Arts Trust Fund, and Rutgers University. Additional support is provided by donors to Zimmerli’s Major Exhibitions Fund: Kathrin and James Bergin and Sundaa and Randy Jones.
Curated by Jaune Quick-
Exhibition 1st February -
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