In a first, the U.S. picks an Indigenous artist for a solo show at the Venice Biennale

The U.S. State Department has selected an Indigenous artist to represent the country at the 2024 Venice Biennale.

Jeffrey Gibson, a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, will be the first such artist to have a solo exhibition in the U.S. Pavilion at the prestigious international arts event.

That's according to a statement this week from the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the government body responsible for co-curating the U.S. Pavilion, alongside Oregon's Portland Art Museum and SITE Santa Fe in New Mexico...

"In 1932, one of the rooms was devoted to Native American art, but it was done in what I would say was a very ethnographic type of presentation," said Kathleen Ash-Milby, curator of Native American Art at the Portland Art Museum, and one of the co-commissioners of Jeffrey Gibson's work in the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. "It grouped native people together and didn't really focus on their individuality as much. There were Navajo rugs on the floor. There were displays of jewelry. Many of the artists were not named." read more...