About a year after becoming the first Native artist to ever singularly represent the United States at the Venice Biennale, Jeffrey Gibson will make his solo museum debut in Southern California this spring at the Broad Museum in Downtown Los Angeles through an adaptation of his pavilion presentation.
Opening on May 10 and running through September 28, the Broad’s curation of the space in which to place me (2024) will showcase over 30 artworks by Gibson that debuted at the pavilion throughout the first-floor galleries. The presentation will also include the museum’s new acquisition, Gibson’s painting “THE RETURNED MALE STUDENT FAR TOO FREQUENTLY GOES BACK TO THE RESERVATION AND FALLS INTO THE OLD CUSTOM OF LETTING HIS HAIR GROW LONG” (2024). In it, the artist deployed his telltale colorful geometric patterning and stylized text to incorporate a direct quote from a 1902 letter by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to a superintendent of the Round Valley Indian Reservation in California, urging them to order Native children to cut their hair and assimilate to White western attire and appearance.
A member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians with Cherokee ancestral roots, Gibson also heavily featured his signature beading practice into works at the US pavilion, incorporating jingles and other material references to a variety of Native cultures and aesthetics across Turtle Island. Across mediums, Gibson engages in subversive Indigenous survivance entwined with queer symbolism by recontextualizing archival documents of oppression and liberation.
“I wanted to showcase that complexity while celebrating the resilience and joy present in the liberation stories and legacies of Indigenous makers,” Gibson said in a press statement.
“The show is about turning margin and center inside out, putting topics and people who have been pushed aside in the spotlight,” he continued. “I’m excited for the project to reach audiences in Los Angeles — in a way it’s coming home, from representing the country on an international stage to speaking to histories that are part of our lived experiences here in the US.”
Gibson and the Broad are working collaboratively to develop programming for the exhibition, including performances, workshops, and talks to engage local community members and visitors alike.
