Jeffrey Gibson
Jeffrey Gibson is a multimedia artist who is a citizen of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and is half Cherokee. His practice synthesizes the cultural and artistic traditions of his Cherokee and Choctaw heritage with the visual languages of Modernism and themes from contemporary popular and queer culture. His work is a vibrant call for queer and Indigenous empowerment, envisioning a celebration of strength and joy within these communities.
Jeffrey Gibson (b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado) spent his formative years in the major urban centers of the United States, Germany, Korea, and England. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1995 and Master of Arts in painting at the Royal College of Art, London, in 1998. In 2024, Gibson’s exhibition the space in which to place me was presented at the US Pavilion of the Venice Biennale. Gibson was the first Indigenous artist to represent the country with a solo presentation at the Biennale. Gibson’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas; Denver Art Museum, Colorado; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington; Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C.; and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among many others. Gibson is a recipient of numerous awards, notably a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (2019); Joan Mitchell Foundation, Painters and Sculptors Award (2012); and Creative Capital Foundation Grant (2005).
POWERFUL BECAUSE WE ARE DIFFERENT
Gibson is known for his bright colors in his textile work, and indigenous handcrafts such as embroidering. His painting style is abstract, geometric, and often include text that he takes inspiration from. The materials he uses are laden with personal and cultural significance: beadwork, fabric, and fringe all add physical and symbolic weight to his works. His sculptures and paintings seamlessly coalesce traditional Native American craft with contemporary cultural production and references, forming works that speak to the experience of an individual subjectivity within the larger narrative defining contemporary globalization. This work was commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art for the 2021 celebration.
Jeffrey Gibson, POWERFUL BECAUSE WE ARE DIFFERENT, 2020, relief print, 19.25" x 15.875", Roanoke College Permanent Collection, Gift of Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo and the Dorothea L. Leonhardt Foundation, Inc.