An Indigenous Present: Conversation with Jeffrey Gibson and Jenelle Porter
In this episode I had the honor to sit down with artist Jeffrey Gibson joined by curator and co-editor of An Indigenous Present, Jenelle Porter. We were given space at SITE Santa Fe in Director Louis Grachos office to have a long and generative conversation while we celebrated the book's launch over Indian Market weekend. We talk about Jeff\u2019s practice and his journey to this moment and the Artist shares the vulnerable, complicated, difficult and joyous path of choosing to be an Artist, offering reflection from what he has learned along the way, understanding how the practice and studio has evolved in the 20 some years of being a working Artist. We then dive in with both Jeff and Jenelle to speak on Jeff\u2019s thought process behind An Indigenous Present, learning about the years of care and intention behind the project, which is, as Jeff reflects, an \u201cArtist book about Artists\u201d. We round out our 2 plus hour chat with the excitement and work that has come with Jeffrey being named the artist to represent the U.S. at the 60th Venice Biennale. As we end our chat, both Jeff and Jenelle share important and practical insight on how to navigate the art worlds and art markets and Jeffrey reminds us all that \u201cArtists do have the power to set precedence in institutions\u201d. \n\nFeatured song: SMOKE RINGS SHIMMERS ENDLESS BLUR by Laura Ortman, 2023\nBroken Boxes introduction song by India Sky\n\nMore about the publication An Indigenous Present: https://www.artbook.com/9781636811024.html\n\nMore about the Artist Jeffrey Gibson\n\nJeffrey Gibson\u2019s work fuses his Choctaw-Cherokee heritage and experience of living in Europe, Asia and the USA with references that span club culture, queer theory, fashion, politics, literature and art history. The artist\u2019s multi-faceted practice incorporates painting, performance, sculpture, textiles and video, characterised by vibrant colour and pattern.\n\nGibson was born in 1972, Colorado, USA and he currently lives and works in Hudson Valley, New York.\n\nThe artist combines intricate indigenous artisanal handcraft \u2013 such as beadwork, leatherwork and quilting \u2013 with narratives of contemporary resistance in protest slogans and song lyrics. This \u201cblend of confrontation and pageantry\u201d is reinforced by what Felicia Feaster describes as a \u201csense of movement and performance as if these objects ... are costumes waiting for a dancer to inhabit them.\u201d The artist harnesses the power of such materials and techniques to activate overlooked narratives, while embracing the presence of historically marginalised identities.\n\nGibson explains: \u201cI am drawn to these materials because they acknowledge the global world. Historically, beads often came from Italy, the Czech Republic or Poland, and contemporary beads can also come from India, China and Japan. Jingles originated as the lids of tobacco and snuff tins, turned and used to adorn dresses, but now they are commercially made in places such as Taiwan. Metal studs also have trade references and originally may have come from the Spanish, but also have modern references to punk and DIY culture. It\u2019s a continual mash-up.\u201d\n\nAcknowledging music as a key element in his experience of life as an artist, pop music became one of the primary points of reference in Gibson\u2019s practice: musicians became his elders and lyrics became his mantras. Recent paintings synthesise geometric patterns inspired by indigenous American artefacts with the lyrics and psychedelic palette of disco music.\n\nSolo exhibitions include \u2018THE SPIRITS ARE LAUGHING\u2019, Aspen Art Museum, Colorado (2022); \u2018This Burning World\u2019, Institute of Contemporary Art, San Francisco, California (2022); \u2018The Body Electric\u2019, SITE Santa Fe, New Mexico (2022) and Frist Art Museum, Nashville (2023); \u2018INFINITE INDIGENOUS QUEER LOVE\u2019, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts (2021); \u2018To Feel Myself Beloved on the Earth\u2019, Benenson Center, Art Omi, Ghent, New York (2021); \u2018When Fire is Applied to a Stone It Cracks\u2019, Brooklyn Art Museum, Brooklyn, New York (2020); \u2018The Anthropophagic Effect\u2019, New Museum, New York City, New York (2019); \u2018Like a Hammer\u2019, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, Wisconsin (2019); Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington (2019); Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, Mississippi (2019); Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado (2018); \u2018This Is the Day\u2019, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas (2019); Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Clinton, New York (2018) and \u2018Love Song\u2019, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts (2013). For the Toronto Biennial 2022, Gibson presented an evolving installation featuring fifteen moveable stages at Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Other recent group exhibitions include \u2018Dreamhome\u2019, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (2022); \u2018Crafting America\u2019, Crystal Bridges, Bentonville, Arkansas (2021); \u2018Monuments Now\u2019, Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, New York (2020); \u2018Duro Olowu: Seeing Chicago\u2019, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois (2020) and The Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, New York (2019). Works can be found in the collections of Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado; Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, Indiana; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts; The Museum of Modern Art, New York City, New York; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada; Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, New York, amongst others. Gibson is a recipient of numerous awards, notably a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (2019), Joan Mitchell Foundation, Painters and Sculptors Grant (2015) and Creative Capital Award (2005).\n\n\n\n\n\nMore about Curator/Writer Jenelle Porter:\n\nJenelle Porter is a curator and writer living in Los Angeles. Current and recent exhibitions include career surveys of Barbara T. Smith (ICA LA, 2023) and Kay Sekimachi (Berkeley Art Museum, 2021); Less Is a Bore: Maximalist Art & Design (ICA/Boston, 2019); and Mike Kelley: Timeless Painting (Mike Kelley Foundation and Hauser & Wirth, New York, 2019). She is co-editor of An Indigenous Present with artist Jeffrey Gibson (fall 2023), and a Viola Frey monograph (fall 2024).\n\nFrom 2011 to 2015 Porter was Mannion Family Senior Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, where she organized Fiber: Sculpture 1960\u2013present and Figuring Color: Kathy Butterly, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Roy McMakin, Sue Williams, as well as monographic exhibitions of the work of Jeffrey Gibson, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Dianna Molzan, Christina Ramberg, Mary Reid Kelley, Arlene Shechet, and Erin Shirreff. Her exhibitions have twice been honored by the International Association of Art Critics. As Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2005\u201310), Porter organized Dance with Camera and Dirt on Delight: Impulses That Form Clay, the first museum surveys of Trisha Donnelly and Charline von Heyl, and numerous other projects.\nFrom 1998\u20132001 Porter was curator at Artists Space, New York. She began her career in curatorial positions at both the Walker Art Center and the Whitney Museum of American Art.\nShe has authored books and essays including those on artists Polly Apfelbaum, Kathy Butterly, Viola Frey, Jeffrey Gibson, Sam Gilliam, Jay Heikes, Margaret Kilgallen, Liz Larner, Ruby Neri, and Matthew Ritchie, among others.\n\n\n\nAn Indigenous Present: Conversation with Jeffrey Gibson and Jenelle Porter