Born in Colorado and currently based in New York, Jeffrey Gibson, a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and Cherokee heritage, will be honoured to represent the United States at the 2024 Venice Biennale. In doing so, he becomes the first Indigenous artist to host a solo exhibition at the US Pavilion.
Gibson’s artistry is a vibrant fusion of traditions. He blends Indigenous beading, weaving, and metalwork techniques with the formal language of Pop Art sculpture and hard-edged abstract painting, expressing his artistry across mediums such as sculpture, painting, installation, and performance. Gibson has made a name for himself with his unique suspended punching-bag sculptures adorned with intricate threads, fringes, and beaded text, as well as his large-scale paintings marked by stylized text and bold colour patterns.
Gibson plans to develop installations inside and outside the US Pavilion for the Venice Biennale, extending even into its courtyard. He aims to infuse his work with elements of performance and multimedia, along with more traditional, static pieces. In collaboration with the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Bard College in upstate New York, the pavilion will feature educational programs.
Reflecting on his selection for the Biennale in an interview with The New York Times, Gibson said, “The last 15 years of my career have been about turning inward and trying to make something I wanted to see in the world. Now I want to expand the way people think about Indigeneity.”
Kathleen Ash-Milby (Navajo Nation), curator of Native American art at the Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon; Louis Grachos, executive director of the contemporary art museum SITE Santa Fe; and independent curator Abigail Winograd are co-commissioning Gibson’s presentation in Venice. Ash-Milby is also making history as the first Native American co-curator in the 129-year history of the US Pavilion in Venice.
Ash-Milby praised Gibson’s work: “Throughout his career, Jeffrey has challenged us to view the world through a new lens with his dynamic and vibrant work. His approach, which is inclusive and collaborative, strongly highlights the influence and resilience of Native American cultures, making him an ideal representative for the United States at this juncture.”
Winograd echoed these sentiments, stating, “I have long believed in the transformative power of Jeffrey’s work. I hope a global audience at the Biennale will experience his work as a source of joy and healing, which is much needed in a world facing conflict and crisis.”
As is the norm, the US Pavilion is being organized in partnership with the US State Department, the Portland Museum of Art in Oregon, and SITE Santa Fe in New Mexico.
Gibson’s work, displayed extensively throughout the US in the past decade, includes major solo exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston in 2013 and the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, in 2018. His work was also featured in the 2017 Desert X Biennial and the 2019 Whitney Biennial. Among other notable milestones, the National Gallery of Art acquired a significant piece from Gibson’s “Garment” series last year. This work references elements of Native American attire and the late performance artist Leigh Bowery. Major US museums, including the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Denver Art Museum, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Seattle Art Museum, and SFMoMa, also include his work in their collections.
Most recently, Simone Leigh represented the US at the Venice Biennale. Her 2022 exhibition, “Sovereignty,” showcased large-scale sculptures that, according to the exhibition brochure, “(interrogated) the extraction of images and objects from across the African diaspora and their circulation as souvenirs in service of colonial narratives.”
The recognition of Jeffrey Gibson as the representative for the United States at the 2024 Venice Biennale signifies a critical milestone for the representation of Indigenous artists on the global stage. It is a testament to his unique fusion of traditional Indigenous and contemporary art forms that challenge norms and broaden his understanding of Indigeneity. As he prepares to showcase his work at the Biennale, art enthusiasts worldwide eagerly anticipate his innovative and culturally rich installations.
