Current:Home > FinanceIn a first, the U.S. picks an Indigenous artist for a solo show at the Venice Biennale-InfoLens
In a first, the U.S. picks an Indigenous artist for a solo show at the Venice Biennale
View Date:2024-12-23 11:26:48
The U.S. State Department has selected an Indigenous artist to represent the country at the 2024 Venice Biennale.
Jeffrey Gibson, a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, will be the first such artist to have a solo exhibition in the U.S. Pavilion at the prestigious international arts event.
That's according to a statement this week from the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the government body responsible for co-curating the U.S. Pavilion, alongside Oregon's Portland Art Museum and SITE Santa Fe in New Mexico.
The State Department's records of the U.S. Pavilion exhibitions date back to when it was built, in 1930.
Although Indigenous artists have shown work more broadly in Venice over the years, the last time Indigenous artists appeared in the U.S. Pavilion at the Biennale was in 1932 — and that was in a group setting, as part of a mostly Eurocentric exhibition devoted to depictions of the American West.
"In 1932, one of the rooms was devoted to Native American art, but it was done in what I would say was a very ethnographic type of presentation," said Kathleen Ash-Milby, curator of Native American Art at the Portland Art Museum, and one of the co-commissioners of Jeffrey Gibson's work in the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. "It grouped native people together and didn't really focus on their individuality as much. There were Navajo rugs on the floor. There were displays of jewelry. Many of the artists were not named."
Ash-Milby, who is also the first Native American curator to co-commission and co-curate an exhibition for the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, told NPR her team selected Gibson because of the artist's wide-ranging, inclusive and critical approach to art-making.
"His work is multifaceted. It incorporates all sorts of different types of media," the curator, a member of the Navajo Nation, said. "But to me, what's most important is his ability to connect with both his culture and different communities, and bring people together. At the same time, he has a very critical lens through which he looks at our history as Americans and as world citizens. Pulling all those things together in the practice of an American artist is really important for someone who's going to represent us on a world stage."
Born in Colorado and based in New York, Gibson, 51, focuses on making work that fuses together American, Native American and queer perspectives. In a 2019 interview with Here and Now, Gibson said the art world hasn't traditionally valued Indigenous histories and artistic representations.
"There's this gap historically about these histories existing on the same level and being valued culturally," Gibson said. "My goal is to force them into the contemporary cannon of what's considered important."
A MacArthur "Genius" Grant winner, Gibson has had his work widely exhibited around the country. Major solo exhibitions include one at the Portland Art Museum last year and, in 2013, at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art. His work is in the collections of high-profile institutions like the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the National Gallery of Art. Gibson participated in the 2019 Whitney Biennial.
"Having an Indigenous artist represent the United States at the Venice Biennale is a long overdue and very powerful moment," San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Director Christopher Bedford said in an email to NPR. "Centering the perspectives of contemporary indigenous artists is a critical component of fostering inclusivity and equity in museums, and in our world."
The details of Gibson's contribution for the 2024 Biennale are mostly under wraps. Curator Ash-Milby said the artist is working on a multimedia installation with the title "the space in which to place me" — a reference to a poem by the Lakota poet Layli Long Soldier.
According to the organizers of the U.S. Pavilion, the upcoming Biennale will enable international audiences to have the first major opportunity to experience Gibson's work outside of the U.S. It will be on view April 20 through Nov. 24, 2024.
veryGood! (57)
Related
- Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul VIP fight package costs a whopping $2M. Here's who bought it.
- Pope Francis: ‘Irresponsible’ Western Lifestyles Push the World to ‘the Breaking Point’ on Climate
- EPA to investigate whether Alabama discriminated against Black residents in infrastructure funding
- Man steals car with toddler in back seat, robs bank, hits tree and dies from injuries, police say
- USMNT Concacaf Nations League quarterfinal Leg 1 vs. Jamaica: Live stream and TV, rosters
- Nobel Prize in literature to be announced in Stockholm
- Tickets for 2024 Paralympics include day passes granting access to multiple venues and sports
- Dear Life Kit: Your most petty social dilemmas, answered
- Missing Ole Miss student declared legally dead as trial for man accused in his death looms
- Mississippi sees spike in child care enrollment after abortion ban and child support policy change
Ranking
- Stop What You're Doing—Moo Deng Just Dropped Her First Single
- A building collapse in Havana leaves 1 person dead and at least 2 injured
- Highlights from AP-NORC poll about the religiously unaffiliated in the US
- UN-backed probe into Ethiopia’s abuses is set to end. No one has asked for it to continue
- 12 college students charged with hate crimes after assault in Maryland
- iCarly Revival Canceled After 3 Seasons on Paramount+
- War and political instability will likely take center stage at a summit of European leaders in Spain
- A Nepal town imposes a lockdown and beefs up security to prevent clashes between Hindus and Muslims
Recommendation
-
Worker trapped under rubble after construction accident in Kentucky
-
You’ll Be Stupefied to Learn How Much Money Harry Potter Background Actress Made on the Movies
-
'Only Murders in the Building' renewed for Season 4 on Hulu: Here's what to know
-
NFL shakes off criticism after Travis Kelce says league is 'overdoing' Taylor Swift coverage
-
Review: 'Emilia Pérez' is the most wildly original film you'll see in 2024
-
Bachelor Nation's Colton Underwood and Becca Tilley Praise Gabby Windey After She Comes Out
-
LSU's Greg Brooks Jr. diagnosed with rare brain cancer: 'We have a long road ahead'
-
Japan has issued a tsunami advisory after an earthquake near its outlying islands