Tickets go on sale to members Tuesday, May 26, at 10:00 a.m. and to not-yet members on Wednesday, May 27, at 10:00 a.m.
An Indigenous Present, a thematic exhibition spanning one hundred years of modern and contemporary Indigenous art, includes new commissions and significant works by fifteen artists who use strategies of abstraction to represent personal and collective narratives, describe specific and imagined places, and build upon cultural and aesthetic traditions.
Exhibition cocurators Jeffrey Gibson, artist, and Jenelle Porter, independent curator, will come together with Katie Delmez, Frist Art Museum senior curator, for a conversation exploring the ideas, practices, and approaches of Native North American artists featured in the exhibition.
Begin the evening with a live musical performance in the Grand Lobby from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m.
The museum will remain open until 9:00 p.m. to allow guests time to visit the galleries after the conversation.
Schedule of Events
5:15–6:15 p.m.: Music in the Grand Lobby
6:30–7:30 p.m.: Opening Conversation: An Indigenous Present
About Jeffrey Gibson
Jeffrey Gibson is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and convener celebrated for his work in painting, installation, video, and performance. For over two decades, he has examined how language, pattern, and music construct meaning, synthesizing Indigenous and Western traditions through vibrant color, complex patterning, and layered sound. A member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, Gibson represented the US at the 2024 Venice Biennale with his acclaimed exhibition the space in which to place me, which made its US debut at The Broad in Los Angeles in May 2025. In June 2025, he unveiled a site-specific installation at Kunsthaus Zürich. Gibson was selected for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2025 Genesis Facade Commission, and his monumental bronze sculptures will be on view through June 2026. His work is held in major collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. He lives in New York’s Hudson Valley and is artist in residence at Bard College.
About Jenelle Porter
Jenelle Porter is a curator and writer. She is the cocurator of An Indigenous Present with Jeffrey Gibson. Recent exhibitions include Barbara T. Smith: Proof, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Kay Sekimachi: Geometries, Berkeley Art Museum; and Less Is a Bore: Maximalist Art & Design, Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. As a writer and editor, she has published extensively, including most recently An Indigenous Present with Jeffrey Gibson and monographs on Viola Frey and Jay Defeo. She has held curatorial positions at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston; Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Artists Space, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Top image: Jenelle Porter and Jeffrey Gibson, cocurators and coeditors of An Indigenous Present. Photo: Mel Taing
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