Jeffrey Gibson: They Teach Love
from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation
Audio Guide
Introduction
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson: They Teach Love
from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation
Curated from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, Jeffrey Gibson: They Teach Love presents a survey of 53 artworks by Jeffrey Gibson, one of today’s foremost contemporary American artists. Spanning sixteen years, this major exhibition bursts with Gibson’s bold patterns and brilliant colors. Gibson, who is of Mississippi Choctaw and Cherokee heritage, blends aspects of Indigenous art and culture with modernist art traditions, navigating and disrupting expectations placed upon Indigenous artists, and bringing messages of hope. By uniting sculpture, paintings, prints, and video with elk hides, tipi poles, wool blankets, beadwork, and fringe, the artist empowers Native American cultures. Punching bags, flags, banners, and illuminated signs are adorned and converted from utilitarian items to art objects that vibrate with spiritual power, carrying his belief that objects, and people alike, have the potential for radical transformation.
Boise Art Museum timed this exhibition to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the non-partisan, nationwide America250 celebration. During this milestone moment, Gibson’s vibrant and powerful voice continues to broaden the view of American art history, contemporary times, and our future. Jeffrey Gibson is a pre-eminent artist who is significantly contributing to the American art canon today. He is the first Indigenous artist to represent the U.S. with a solo presentation at the Venice Biennale (2024).
Curated by Ryan Hardesty, Executive Director and Curator of Exhibitions and Collections, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Washington State University
Generously supported by the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
and the Steiner Family Foundation
Text panel – About the Artist
Audio Recording
About the Artist
Jeffrey Gibson’s artwork is informed by his Choctaw and Cherokee heritage and queer identity, bringing deeply personal, political, and cultural perspectives to his multidisciplinary practice. His artwork merges Indigenous traditions, such as beadwork and garments, with artmaking methods of Geometric Abstraction, Maximalism, and Op Art. Challenging colonial narratives, he furthers the goals of Indigenous visibility in contemporary art spaces while incorporating themes of resilience, community, and joy. Gibson’s artwork is aesthetically powerful and culturally essential as it offers new models of representation in a world still grappling with historical erasure and systemic inequities. Jeffrey Gibson’s artwork uses the power of hope as a form of activism.
Text panel – Punching Bag Series
Audio Recording
Punching Bag Series
Everlast punching bags provide the sculptural framework for Gibson’s now iconic Punching Bag series (2013 – present). Punching bags are associated with themes of developing physical strength as well as metaphors of punching through societal and personal barriers. Gibson transforms each bag with embellishments of beadwork, jingles, fringe, and other colorful materials, while embedding selected text from song lyrics that are tied to popular culture.
“It is about a relationship of wanting to fight back… It’s a reclamation of power; it’s a reclamation of identity.”
– Jeffrey Gibson, CBS Sunday Morning interview
ALL I EVER WANTED ALL I EVER NEEDED, 2019
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
ALL I EVER WANTED ALL I EVER NEEDED, 2019
found canvas punching bag, glass beads, plastic beads, artificial sinew, steel studs, acrylic paint, steel chain
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
All I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm
– Enjoy the Silence by Depeche Mode
SPIRIT AND MATTER, 2023
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
SPIRIT AND MATTER, 2023
acrylic paint on elk hide inset in custom wood frame
Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
I’VE NEVER MET ANYONE QUITE LIKE YOU BEFORE, 2019
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
I’VE NEVER MET ANYONE QUITE LIKE YOU BEFORE, 2019
acrylic on canvas, glass beads, artificial sinew inset into custom wood frame
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT, 2022
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT, 2022
acrylic paint on canvas inset in custom wood frame, acrylic velvet, acrylic felt, glass beads, turquoise, metal sequins, vintage pin-back buttons, vintage beaded elements, artificial sinew, nylon thread, cotton canvas, nylon, rope
Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
WHEREAS IT IS ESSENTIAL TO JUST GOVERNMENT…, 2024
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
WHEREAS IT IS ESSENTIAL TO JUST GOVERNMENT WE RECOGNIZE THE EQUALITY OF ALL PEOPLE BEFORE THE LAW, 2024
acrylic on canvas, glass beads, plastic beads inset in custom wood frame
Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
YOUR LOVE WILL BRING ME HOME, 2023
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
YOUR LOVE WILL BRING ME HOME, 2023
acrylic on canvas, glass beads, artificial sinew, custom wood frame
Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
WHERE MY LOVE LIES DREAMING, 2023
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
WHERE MY LOVE LIES DREAMING, 2023
acrylic paint on cold press paper, vintage beaded element, glass beads, acrylic felt, nylon thread, silicone adhesive
Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
Powerful Because They Are Different, 2020
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
Powerful Because They Are Different, 2020
glazed ceramic
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
This artwork is Jeffrey Gibson’s response to the commonly reproduced image, of a weary Native American slumped upon his horse, that was created by American-born artist James Earle Fraser. Titled, The End of the Trail, the original sculpture was intended by Fraser to be a commentary on the effects of Euro-American settlement upon Native lands, a process that forced Indigenous peoples far from their homes and ever closer toward the edge of the Pacific Ocean, a symbolic end of the trail.
Gibson grew up seeing this and other similar images “of a shamed, defeated Indian. It always made me feel badly about myself, and I wondered if this was really how the rest of the world viewed us, as failures. It seemed to be an image about defeat and despair.” Gibson later noticed that the image was being reclaimed and reinvented in a Native context. “This left a strong impression on me, and I found it amazing that this image could embody new meaning under different circumstances.”
Gibson says he now accepts why The End of the Trail became such an iconic sculpture. “I have come to see it as a symbol of resilience and strength—characteristics traditionally associated with the warrior. I no longer see this as the end or as defeat. Instead, I see a warrior who is taking a break before getting back up again. There is a degree of lament, but there is also a strong sense of honor and determination.”
Lady Dior Handbag, 2023
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
Lady Dior Handbag, 2023
glass beads, leather, nylon, neoprene
Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer
5 Drums
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
left-right:
Round Dancing, 2021
screen print on handmade elk hide drum, edition 3/24
In Every Direction, 2021
screen print on handmade elk hide drum
A Time For Change, 2020
acrylic matte primer, screen print, acrylic gloss varnish on handmade elk hide drum, edition 10/24
Ripple Effect, 2021
screen print on handmade elk hide drum
No Beginning, No End, 2021
screen print on handmade elk hide drum
Published by Tandem Press, Madison, WI
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
himmak pilla, 2022
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
himmak pilla, 2022
screen print and beadwork mounted to mat board, edition 2/24
Published by Tandem Press, Madison, WI
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
no simple word for time, 2022
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
no simple word for time, 2022
screen print and beadwork mounted to mat board, edition 2/24
Published by Tandem Press, Madison, WI
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
To Feel the Warm Sun on My Face, 2018
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
To Feel the Warm Sun on My Face, 2018
acrylic and graphite on canvas
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
PLAY AMONG THE STARS, 2023
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
PLAY AMONG THE STARS, 2023
screen print and collage, edition 4/30
Published by Tandem Press, Madison, WI
Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
From Above, 2018
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
From Above, 2018
acrylic and graphite on canvas
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
RESPECT INDIGENOUS LAND, 2021
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
RESPECT INDIGENOUS LAND, 2021
printed vinyl, nylon, with grommets, edition 1/3
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
THE SPIRITS ARE LAUGHING, 2021
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
THE SPIRITS ARE LAUGHING, 2021
printed vinyl, nylon, with grommets, edition 1/3
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
Butterfly Effect, 2023
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
Butterfly Effect, 2023
painted bronze
Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
WE PLAY ENDLESSLY, 2018
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
WE PLAY ENDLESSLY, 2018
stained glass and light source
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
One for the Other, 2009
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
One for the Other, 2009
lithograph, edition 5/20
Collaborating Master Printer Frank Janzen
Published by Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts, Pendleton, OR
Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer
They Come From Fire, 2022
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
They Come From Fire, 2022
offset relief on layers of handmade Japanese gampi paper with screen-printed gold ink flocked with metallic mica, edition 1/50
Published by Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
Turn it up, 2012
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
Turn it up, 2012
acrylic, spray paint, colored pencil and graphite on goat skin, mounted to two panels
Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
My Heart Beats for the One I Love, 2024
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
My Heart Beats for the One I Love, 2024
drum and neon
Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
LOVE (Is It All Over My Face), 2022
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
LOVE (Is It All Over My Face), 2022
pigment print with glazing and hand-cut Hollanders and Hahnemühle rice papers, edition 34/45
Published by Fire Island Artist Residency, Astoria, NY
Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer
MIRROR IN THE SKY, 2023
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
MIRROR IN THE SKY, 2023
screen print and collage, edition 4/30
Published by Tandem Press, Madison, WI
Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
LOOK HOW FAR WE’VE COME!, 2016
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
LOOK HOW FAR WE’VE COME!, 2016
unique monoprint, edition 30/83
Published by the artist in conjunction with a screen-printing workshop at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Milwaukee, WI
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
LOOK HOW FAR WE’VE COME!, 2016
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
LOOK HOW FAR WE’VE COME!, 2016
unique monoprint, edition 34/83
Published by the artist in conjunction with a screen-printing workshop at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Milwaukee, WI
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
INFINITE INDIGENOUS QUEER LOVE, 2021
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
INFINITE INDIGENOUS QUEER LOVE, 2021
mixed media
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
SAY A PRAYER, 2021
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado
SAY A PRAYER, 2021
lithograph with chine collé, edition 2/20
Published by Tamarind Institute
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
Text panel – Indigenous Futurism
Audio Recording
Indigenous Futurism
Indigenous Futurism imagines alternate futures that embrace Indigenous knowledge and perspectives, challenge stereotypes, and deconstruct colonialism. Jeffrey Gibson’s artwork exemplifies these principles by emphasizing the power of building community through collaboration, spreading love through expression, and impacting future generations with healing. His figurative sculptures are a clear criticism of the societal expectations surrounding how Indigenous people should look, present themselves, and exist in the world.
Gibson has traveled extensively to meet Indigenous craftspeople with the goal of learning traditional skills such as beadwork. He created a series of sculptures inspired by the ceremonial garments he encountered at powwows. Calling his sculptures “weird little alien beings,” these freestanding figures reflect Gibson’s vision of Indigenous Futurism, inspired by his awareness of the parallel cultural movement of Afrofuturism.
“The figures began as a way for me to create a space for myself, one that I did not see represented in dialogues about Native or Indigenous representation. The perceptions placed onto me by non-Native people were too narrow and never acknowledged my experiences as ‘Native’ enough. I refute this kind of pigeonholing by defining my own sense of aesthetics and use of materials that are a mash up of personal experiences and references that have occurred in my life.”
– Jeffrey Gibson
POWER! POWER! POWER!, 2020
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
POWER! POWER! POWER!, 2020
woodblock, screen print, acrylic gloss varnish, edition 2/30
Published by Tandem Press, Madison, WI
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
Mighty Real, 2021
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
Mighty Real, 2021
lithograph, edition 2/20
Published by Tamarind Institute
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
okchakko hicha okchamali hicha lakna, 2020
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
okchakko hicha okchamali hicha lakna, 2020
mixed media
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
Untitled Figure 1, 2022
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
Untitled Figure 1, 2022
plastic bone pipe beads, fringe, glass beads, artificial sinew, tin cones, sea glass, acrylic felt, steel armature, powder coat varnish
Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
Text panel – To Name An Other
Audio Recording
To Name An Other
This expansive artwork is comprised of 51 screen-printed elk hide drums, 50 wearable garments, and a video documenting various performances in which the garments and drums were worn and used. The garments and accompanying drums are printed with a name that describes an action or event that Gibson has found inspiring and courageous in defiance of circumstances he views as wrong. They include times when someone has been silenced, erased, denied their civil rights, treated inhumanely, or when privilege and power have created inequities.
Refrains such as THEIR VOTES COUNT, THEIR DARK SKIN INSPIRES, and THEY TEACH LOVE, all point toward Gibson’s hope for the future. By activating these garments and drums through performances, To Name An Other holds the memory of the collective effort to make space for diversity and agency in the public sphere. To Name An Other was originally commissioned as a performance by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in 2019.
“When I make art, I listen for the excitement, I listen to the excitement—to my Native American self, animal self, intellectual self, female self, queer self.”
–Jeffrey Gibson
To Name An Other, 2019
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
To Name An Other, 2019
51 screen printed elk hide drums, 50 garments, and video
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
Video – 2 hours
Mx Oops and Xavier (The Anthropophagic Effect), 2019
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
Mx Oops and Xavier (The Anthropophagic Effect), 2019
digital print, edition 1/3
Published by the artist
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
SKOOKUM, 2023
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
SKOOKUM, 2023
cold press watercolor paper, studio ephemera, acrylic paint, vintage skookum doll, vintage beaded bag and shoe charm, vintage brass and enamel brooch, vintage pin-back button, glass beads, nylon thread, muslin
Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer
From left to right, the artworks SKOOKUM and NOT YOUR SKOOKUM tell a story of commercialized racism and Gibson’s efforts to confront and disrupt it. Skookum dolls were first popularized in the early 20th century as collectible caricatures created to imitate Chinook tribal members and were advertised as souvenirs to tourists visiting the “Indian Territory” of the Great Plains and West. The word “skookum” is an appropriated Chinook word meaning strong, good, or brave.
At an early age, Gibson found these dolls troubling, but it wasn’t until later in life that the artist would re-examine his relationship to them and other similar objects. While SKOOKUM incorporates an actual skookum doll alongside other vintage items from the artist’s collection, NOT YOUR SKOOKUM features distressed images of this doll, partially obscured through marks of paint, emerging through the spills, drips, and geometric letterforms is the phrase “NOT YOUR SKOOKUM.” Gibson says that these words represent “a rejection of one image and name that informed 20th century’s incorrect imagining of how Native and Indigenous people look and dress.”
NOT YOUR SKOOKUM, 2022
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
NOT YOUR SKOOKUM, 2022
acrylic on canvas, archival pigment print on cotton, glass beads, artificial sinew inset into custom wood frame
Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer
Text panel – Performance and Fashion
Audio Recording
Performance and Fashion
Jeffrey Gibson’s artistic practice includes artworks that can be activated by wearing them in the context of performances. Gibson constructs these garments with his custom-designed fabrics as well as text and imagery he combines from newspaper clippings and his own body of artwork. When seeking participants to wear his garments for performances, his priority is to engage with communities such as those who identify as Indigenous, people of color, or LGBTQ+. By doing this, he centers a distinctive selection of individuals and their perspectives. His community dance performances express the joy he felt dancing in clubs during his youth.
“A garment acts as the mediator between the wearer and the rest of the world. It can protect me, draw attention to me, celebrate me, allow me to be another version of myself.”
– Jeffrey Gibson
Roxy (STAND YOUR GROUND), 2019
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
Roxy (STAND YOUR GROUND), 2019
digital print, edition 1/3
Published by the artist
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
“The individuals that I put in the garments, their personal narratives become intertwined by my personal narrative and it leaves an archive that is powerful, that is present tense, that will describe me, of course, but also what was happening in the spaces that I moved through.” – Jeffrey Gibson
A Wag A Wit A Witness, 2018
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
A Wag A Wit A Witness, 2018
polyester organza, repurposed Seminole patchwork, printed cotton, printed chiffon, repurposed Japanese sash, nylon fringe canvas, acrylic paint, plastic beads, plastic trim, artificial sinew
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
THEY PLAY ENDLESSLY, 2019
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
THEY PLAY ENDLESSLY, 2019
digitally printed fabric, cotton batting, cotton thread, cotton fabric
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
Double Fortune, 2022
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
Double Fortune, 2022
digitally printed cotton canvas, lycra fabric, cotton thread, quilting poly fill, nylon thread, holographic vinyl fabric, acrylic felt, sculpting wire, acrylic druzy beads
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
Text panel – Language and Text
Audio Recording
Language and Text
Jeffrey Gibson first began incorporating text into his artwork in 2012, when he included beaded words into a punching bag sculpture, entitled Believe. This marked a turning point in his career and artistic practice. Since then, text has become a recurring element in his artwork. Many of his selected texts are extracted from song lyrics, song titles, and other musical references. Pop songs from the 1980s and 1990s are frequently embedded in Gibson’s artworks, especially those introducing queer culture into mainstream music. Often the language fragments are double entendres about love, sexuality, identity, and self-knowledge.
“When I appropriate language in my art—song lyrics, poetry—these borrowed words give me confidence to articulate something that I did not have words for in my own life experience at the time—they spoke to me and for me.”
– Jeffrey Gibson
STAND YOUR GROUND, 2019
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
STAND YOUR GROUND, 2019
cotton and linen, digitally printed fabric, polyester thread, cotton batting
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
STAND YOUR GROUND, 2019
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
STAND YOUR GROUND, 2019
mixed media
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
Suspended from tipi poles and incorporating an array of materials such as glass beads and metal jingles, STAND YOUR GROUND includes custom-printed fabrics, repurposed photographs, and newspaper headlines centered on two notable 21st century court cases—the 2012 trial of George Zimmerman who fatally shot Treyvon Martin, and the multiple lawsuits brought against the United States government over President Trump’s efforts to dismantle Bear Ears National Monument in 2017. This artwork debuted at the 2019 Whitney Biennial, an exhibition of contemporary American art organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.
SHE KNOWS OTHER WORLDS, 2019
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
SHE KNOWS OTHER WORLDS, 2019
cotton and linen, digitally printed fabric, polyester thread, cotton batting
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
Video – Indigenous artist Jeffrey Gibson, on view at the Venice Biennale
Audio Recording
Indigenous artist Jeffrey Gibson, on view at the Venice Biennale
CBS Sunday Morning, 2024
Video – 5:29 minutes
Jackson Polys, 2019
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
Jackson Polys, 2019
digital print, edition 2/3
Published by the artist
Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
The Stranger, no. 16, 2008
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
The Stranger, no. 16, 2008
monoprint, edition 1/1
Published by Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts, Pendleton, OR
Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer
The Stranger, no. 20, 2008
Audio Recording
Jeffrey Gibson
(b. 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
The Stranger, no. 20, 2008
monoprint, edition 1/1
Published by Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts, Pendleton, OR
Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer
The earliest works featured in this exhibition are from Jeffrey Gibson’s 2008 residency with Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts, a nonprofit organization located on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in the foothills of Oregon’s Blue Mountains. During his residency Gibson created a series of images that combined abstraction with portraiture and landscape. Crow’s Shadow Institute has a long history of collaborating with important contemporary artists and was founded in 1992, by artists James Lavadour (Walla Walla) and Phillip Cash Cash (Cayuse and Nez Perce).
Text panel – The Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
Audio Recording
The Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation
Jordan D. Schnitzer is a West Coast philanthropist known for his extensive collection of contemporary art and commitment to making his art collection accessible to the public through the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation. Established in 1997, the Foundation has become a significant force in the art world, amassing a collection of thousands of artworks by more than 1,500 artists, including renowned artists
Kara Walker, Louise Bourgeois, and Jeffrey Gibson. The Foundation’s mission is to share this collection of artwork with museums across North America, and it has done so by facilitating over 180 exhibitions at more than 130 institutions. The Foundation supports educational initiatives for exhibiting art museums and provides grants for outreach activities, artist talks, and student programs. By fostering deep public engagement with art and artists, the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation helps ensure that the arts will remain accessible and integral to cultural life for a wide range of audiences into the future.
