ICA Boston's "An Indigenous Present" Show Pushes Boundaries of Native Art and Abstraction
The show features the work of 15 abstract Native artists, marking a departure from traditional representations in the art world. The title, borrowed from Gibson’s book, references Indigenous gift economies and highlights gaps in Native art resources.
Abstract abstraction becomes experience for Native people living intermundane lives—between Native America and the United States, elevating it beyond style to mode of experience. Gibson's curation untangles artists from "fine art" rhetoric, bringing together diverse culture bearers who share space within Indigenous contexts but rarely unite in Western institutions.
Visual artists Cara Romero creates campy photography, James Luna molds sculptural lampoons, and Wendy Red Star arranges sarcastic tableaus. The show translates approach across nine rooms, with each of the fifteen artists represented multiple times.
The 2023 publication date may explain the absence of local artists, highlighting the overrepresentation of Southwestern and Plains aesthetics in contemporary Native art pedagogy at non-Native university art departments.
Sonya Kelliher-Combs' "Salmon Curl" (2023) exemplifies violent beauty of life’s cycles across species. Mary Sully's portraits of white celebrities reimagining fame through a Dakota aesthetic lens lampoon the culture that excluded her.
The exhibition translates approach across nine rooms, with each of the fifteen artists represented multiple times. Teasing the show's primary theme, "Man-made Land" (2025), commissioned from Caroline Monnet, is installed diagonally in ICA’s slanted foyer wall as a unique, though ancillary, exhibition.
Raven Chacon's installation "Controlled Burn" (2025) hums like a distant engine, marking what cannot be entered. Kimowan Metchewais' work fuses landscape photography with the blanket's horizontal stripes rendered here in ruddy hues like dried blood. Jaune Quick-to-See Smith's works extend this thread employing canvas as a rich stand-in for the animal hides used to construct Plains tipis.
Humor permeates throughout, from caption to composition in Anna Tsouhlarakis’s "IF SHE WAS AT THE PARTY, SHE WOULD HAVE DUMPED MORE THAN TEA" (2025), signaling unsustainability and whitewashing of U.S. life and history.
The show pushes boundaries, delivering disquietude for settlers, delight and laughter for Native attendees opening weekend. It delivers something beyond representationalism—evolving toward resistance and circumnavigation of the colonial gaze.
ICA Boston's "An Indigenous Present" Show Transcends Borders of Art and Culture
The show features the work of 15 abstract Native artists, marking a departure from traditional representations in the art world. The title, borrowed from Gibson’s book, references Indigenous gift economies and highlights gaps in Native art resources.
Abstract abstraction becomes experience for Native people living intermundane lives—between Native America and the United States, elevating it beyond style to mode of experience. Gibson's curation untangles artists from "fine art" rhetoric, bringing together diverse culture bearers who share space within Indigenous contexts but rarely unite in Western institutions.
Visual artists Cara Romero creates campy photography, James Luna molds sculptural lampoons, and Wendy Red Star arranges sarcastic tableaus. The show translates approach across nine rooms, with each of the fifteen artists represented multiple times.
The 2023 publication date may explain the absence of local artists, highlighting the overrepresentation of Southwestern and Plains aesthetics in contemporary Native art pedagogy at non-Native university art departments.
Sonya Kelliher-Combs' "Salmon Curl" (2023) exemplifies violent beauty of life’s cycles across species. Mary Sully's portraits of white celebrities reimagining fame through a Dakota aesthetic lens lampoon the culture that excluded her.
The exhibition translates approach across nine rooms, with each of the fifteen artists represented multiple times. Teasing the show's primary theme, "Man-made Land" (2025), commissioned from Caroline Monnet, is installed diagonally in ICA’s slanted foyer wall as a unique, though ancillary, exhibition.
Raven Chacon's installation "Controlled Burn" (2025) hums like a distant engine, marking what cannot be entered. Kimowan Metchewais' work fuses landscape photography with the blanket's horizontal stripes rendered here in ruddy hues like dried blood. Jaune Quick-to-See Smith's works extend this thread employing canvas as a rich stand-in for the animal hides used to construct Plains tipis.
Humor permeates throughout, from caption to composition in Anna Tsouhlarakis’s "IF SHE WAS AT THE PARTY, SHE WOULD HAVE DUMPED MORE THAN TEA" (2025), signaling unsustainability and whitewashing of U.S. life and history.
The show pushes boundaries, delivering disquietude for settlers, delight and laughter for Native attendees opening weekend. It delivers something beyond representationalism—evolving toward resistance and circumnavigation of the colonial gaze.
ICA Boston's "An Indigenous Present" Show Transcends Borders of Art and Culture
it's all about pushing boundaries with Native art and abstraction, which is so needed in the art world, tbh 
. they're featuring 15 abstract Native artists who are breaking free from traditional rep and creating something entirely new and dope 
. i love how they're not afraid to tackle tough topics like colonialism and representation – it's about time! 
and can we talk about the humor? Anna Tsouhlarakis' art is giving me life 
. anyway, if u haven't checked out this show yet, u need to get on that ASAP 
. I mean, who needs traditional representations when you can have abstract Native art that speaks to the experiences of living between worlds? The diversity of styles and mediums is truly a breath of fresh air – I loved how each artist pushed the boundaries of their own culture and the colonial gaze 
.
. I'm excited to see more local artists represented at non-Native university art departments – it's about time we shook off those Eurocentric norms 
. It's like the artists are saying, "Hey, we may be stuck between worlds, but we're not afraid to subvert and resist" 
.
I'm telling you, this show is more than just a celebration of Native art... it's like they're saying, "Hey, we've been marginalized for too long, now it's our turn to own the space." 
But what I love most about this show is how it's pushing boundaries and challenging our expectations of what art should be. Like, who needs traditional representations when you can have campy photography and sarcastic tableaus? 
This show is like a wake-up call, telling us that we need to listen to Native voices and perspectives if we want to truly understand what's been going on in this country. 
it's like the whole room is vibrating with energy and it's infectious. i'm so glad to see more Native artists getting recognition and space in the art world. it's about time! 
.
. I mean, can you believe this is only the second time in history that an art museum has had an entire exhibition dedicated to Native art? 
), it's about giving voice to the voices that have been silenced for centuries.
That's a lot of people coming together to celebrate and learn about Indigenous art! And let me tell you, the installation "Controlled Burn" by Raven Chacon is giving me LIFE 
. It's like nothing I've ever seen before.
.
.
. Can't wait to check out more of these shows and see what other amazing things they have in store