Jeffrey Gibson’s takeover of the United States pavilion for this year’s Venice Biennale contemporary art show is a celebration of color, pattern, and craft, as evidenced by the bright red facade adorned with a colorful clash of geometry and a foreground dominated by a riot of massive red podiums.
Jeffrey Gibson, who is of Mississippi Choctaw and Cherokee descent, marks a historic moment as the first Native American to independently represent the United States at the Venice Biennale, the oldest global contemporary art exhibition. It’s noteworthy that Native American artists were last included in this event in 1932.
At 52, Gibson acknowledges the significance of his representation but emphasizes his aim to promote broader inclusion through his participation. This theme resonates with the Biennale’s main exhibition, “Stranieri Ovunque Strangers Everywhere,” which accompanies approximately 90 national presentations from April 20 to November 24.
“The first is not the most important story,” Gibson told The Associated Press this week before the pavilion’s inauguration on Thursday. “The first is hopefully the beginning of many, many, many more stories to come.”
Jeffrey Gibson’s pivotal year: New book, major exhibits, and artistic endeavors
This major European exhibition is a significant milestone for Gibson, coinciding with his new book “An Indigenous Present,” which showcases over 60 Indigenous artists. He is also embarking on two significant new endeavors: a facade project for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and an exhibition at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.
Jeffrey Gibson’s exhibition, named “The Space in Which to Place Me,” incorporates texts from foundational U.S. documents, music, sermons, and sayings into his beadwork sculptures and paintings, serving as a poignant reminder of America’s unfulfilled promises of equality. His artwork radiates optimism through its vibrant use of color, positioning it as a call to action.
“What I find so beautiful about Jeffrey’s work is its ability to function as a prism, to take the traumas of the past and the questions about identity and politics and refract them in such a way that things that realities that have become flattened … can become these beautiful kaleidoscopes, which are joyous and celebratory and critical all at the same time,” said Abigail Winograd, one of the exhibition’s curators.
“When I see people walk through the pavilion and kind of gasp when they walk from room to room, that’s exactly what we wanted,” Winograd said.
As visitors enter the pavilion, they encounter sculptures adorned with beaded bodices featuring dates of U.S. laws intended to ensure equity, with colorful fringes flowing downward. One painting features a quote from George Washington, “Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth,” presented in geometric letters blending into a vibrant, patterned backdrop.
Weaving history and modernity through beadwork and art
Jeffrey Gibson emphasizes the ongoing struggle for equity and justice, noting that today’s advocates are part of a long tradition in American culture. He hopes that his exhibition will provoke thought about why some initiatives for justice have failed or been reversed.
Central to Gibson’s artistic practice is the craft, which challenges past dismissals of Indigenous art and addresses the painful histories of Native American people, offering a therapeutic aspect through the process of creation.
The pavilion’s detailed beadwork sculptures, influenced by Native American traditions but distinctly modern, use high-fashion techniques and global materials, including vintage beads from Japan and China, and glass beads from Murano, near Venice.
Gibson’s paper artworks combine vintage beadwork acquired online and from various sales with mixed media, paying homage to the Native American craft legacy while exploring a diverse range of influences beyond his Indigenous heritage.
Gibson states, “I’ve looked at op art, pattern and decoration. I’ve looked at psychedelia, I have taken part in rave culture and queer culture and drag and the whole spectrum,” acknowledging the multifaceted inspirations that shape his work. “And so for me, I would not be not telling you the whole truth if I only chose to spoke about indigeneity. But my body is an Indigenous body — it’s all funneled through this body,” he said. “And so my hope is that by telling my experience, that everyone else can project their own kind of intersected, layered experience into the world.”