Jeffrey Gibson to Represent U.S.A. at Venice Biennale 2024
The Choctaw and Cherokee artist—whose works often feature bright geometric patterns, glass beads, and epigrammatic texts—will become the first Indigenous artist to represent the United States in Venice as a solo artist.
Jeffrey Gibson, ONE FOOT IN GLORY, ONE FOOT IN HELL (2020). Acrylic on canvas, glass beads, and artificial sinew inset into wood frame. 143.51 x 111.76 cm. Courtesy the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, California. Photo: Max Yawney.
Jeffrey Gibson will become the first Indigenous artist to represent the United States as a solo artist when he shows at the 60th Venice Biennale next year.
Gibson's work bridges Native American craft and abstract modernism, among other influences.
He is the recipient of a MacArthur 'genius' grant and numerous solo exhibitions, including This Burning World: Jeffrey Gibson (ICA San Francisco, 2022), Jeffrey Gibson: The Body Electric (SITE Santa Fe, 2022), and Jeffrey Gibson: They Come From Fire (Portland Art Museum, 2022).
The U.S. pavilion will be co-curated by Kathleen Ash-Milby, Curator of Native American Art at the Portland Art Museum, and independent curator Abigail Winograd.
'I have long believed in the ability of Jeffrey's work to be a force for positive change and to create the possibility of a radically inclusive future,' said Winograd.
'It is my hope that as a global audience experiences his work through the Biennale, they will also find it to be a source of joy and healing, something sorely needed in a world driven by conflict and crisis,' she said.
'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,' Ash-Milby added.
Gibson is represented by Roberts Projects in Los Angeles, Sikkema Jenkins & Co. in New York, and Stephen Friedman Gallery in London. —[O]
