PORTLAND, OR .- Portland Art Museum in Oregon and SITE Santa Fe in New Mexico, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, announced today that Jeffrey Gibson will represent the United States at La Biennale di Venezia, the 60th International Art Exhibition. Celebrated for an artistic practice that combines American, Indigenous, and Queer histories with influences from music and pop culture, Gibson creates a dynamic visual language that reflects the inherent diversity and hybridity of American culture. Using abundant color, complex pattern, and text, he invites deep reflection on identity, inspires empathy, and advocates for a widening of access to democracy and freedom for all. On view April 20 through November 24, 2024, the Biennale provides international audiences with the first major opportunity to experience Gibson’s work outside of the U.S.

The 2024 U.S. Pavilion is co-commissioned by Kathleen Ash-Milby, Curator of Native American Art at the Portland Art Museum and a member of the Navajo Nation, Louis Grachos, Phillips Executive Director of SITE Santa Fe, and Abigail Winograd, independent curator, and is co-curated by Ash-Milby and Winograd. A member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, Gibson will be the first Indigenous artist to have a solo exhibition for the U.S. Pavilion. This exhibition is also the first to be co-commissioned and co-curated by a Native American curator.

“Throughout his career, Jeffrey has challenged us to look at the world differently through his innovative and vibrant work,” said Ash-Milby. “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.”

“Having recently collaborated with Jeffrey to present a solo exhibition in Santa Fe, we are honored to continue championing his dynamic, insightful, and timely work—now on an international stage.” said Grachos. “This collaboration builds upon SITE Santa Fe’s long history as a platform for artistic innovation, providing artists with the support and resources they need to realize bold and ambitious visions.” *

“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. I couldn't be more thrilled to be working with Jeffrey and this team to share his work more broadly.”




“Jeffrey’s work embodies the aspirations of the Portland Art Museum’s program to reveal the beauty and complexities of the world, and creates a deeper understanding of our shared humanity,” said Brian Ferriso, Director of the Portland Art Museum. “We are incredibly honored to help bring his vision to an international audience through this presentation at the Venice Biennale.”

For the U.S. Pavilion, Gibson will activate the interior and exterior of the U.S. Pavilion with a series of new and recent works that invite reflection on individual and collective identities including sculpture, paintings, multimedia works and a site-specific installation activating the pavilion’s courtyard. In conjunction with the presentation at the U.S. Pavilion and in partnerships with the Institute of American Indian Arts (Santa Fe, NM) and Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY), Portland and SITE will also develop year-long educational programming. They will focus on connecting Indigenous, Native American and international undergraduate humanities students and graduate art students, including bringing students from the Institute of American Indian Arts to Venice for a summer arts program and organizing a fall 2024 convening for students, scholars, and the public.

The 2024 U.S. Pavilion: Jeffrey Gibson is made possible by The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State.


THE ARTIST

Jeffrey Gibson (b. 1972, Colorado Springs, CO) is a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent who currently lives and works near Hudson, NY. Gibson’s approach to art- making is defined by its hybrid and cosmopolitan nature, largely informed by his international upbringing in the U.S., Korea, and Germany. During his itinerant childhood as the son of a retired civil employee of the U.S. Army, he found solace and friendship in the world of music, at various times exploring the sounds and social traditions of the punk and rave music of his generation, and in the powwow traditions of his intertribal Native heritage. Resisting static, preconceived notions of what people believe Native American art looks like, he combines Native art traditions with the visual languages of modernism to explore the confluence of personal identity, culture, history, and international social narratives.

Recent solo exhibitions include This Burning World: Jeffrey Gibson (ICA San Francisco, 2022), Jeffrey Gibson: The Body Electric (SITE Santa Fe, 2022), Jeffrey Gibson: They Come From Fire (Portland Art Museum, 2022), Jeffrey Gibson: INFINITE INDIGENOUS QUEER LOVE (deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, 2022) and Jeffrey Gibson: Like A Hammer (Denver Art Museum, 2018). His work is included in many permanent collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, National Gallery of Canada, and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. His recently published book, An Indigenous Present (August 2023), showcases diverse approaches to Indigenous concepts, forms and mediums by North American Indigenous contemporary artists, musicians, filmmakers, choreographers, architects, writers, photographers, and designers.

Gibson has been recognized with numerous awards, including a 2019 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and he is currently an artist-in-residence at Bard College. Gibson received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1995 and his Master of Arts in painting from the Royal College of Art, London, in 1998.heir communities.