The estate of Indigenous painter Jaune Quick-to-See Smith will now be co-represented by Stephen Friedman Gallery alongside New York’s Garth Greenan Gallery. The announcement comes shortly after the artist’s passing on January 24th at 85.
Stephen Friedman Gallery will mount the first solo exhibition of works by the artist in the U.K. on June 6th at its London gallery. The show will feature a wide range of her works, including a previously unseen series she was developing shortly before her death. Later this year, the contemporary art space Fruitmarket in Edinburgh will host a solo show of works by the artist, “Wilding,” which will take place from August 11, 2025 to January 2, 2026.
“Smith’s powerful body of work—rooted in Indigenous knowledge systems and propelled by an incisive visual language—has transformed how we think about American art,” said founder Stephen Friedman. “Through satire, symbolism, and abstraction, she reframed history and challenged dominant cultural narratives with urgency and clarity. Her voice as an artist, activist, and educator has paved the way for generations, and we are honored to help carry forward her legacy and continue building global recognition of her visionary practice.”
Bone in 1940 on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana, Smith is a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. She pursued formal art training at Olympic College in Washington, where she earned an associate degree in 1960. However, she stopped her education for two decades to support her family before resuming her creative pursuits, earning a bachelor’s degree in art education in 1976 from Framingham State College and a master’s degree in visual arts from the University of New Mexico in 1980.
Smith is known for her work that draws attention to the lost histories of Indigenous communities while critiquing the treatment of Native Americans in the United States. Her expressionistic paintings, prints, and drawings are often filled with symbols associated with various Native American cultures. She is perhaps best known for her “maps,” which reimagine the United States with the names and territories of Indigenous tribes across the country.
Smith was also pivotal in forming the Grey Canyon Group, a collective of Indigenous artists including Felice Lucero, Emmi Whitehorse, Larry Emerson, Conrad House, and Paul Willeto. New York’s American Indian Community House presented the group’s first exhibition in 1979.
In recent decades, Smith has paved the way for contemporary Indigenous American art in the mainstream. Her work I See Red: Target (1992) became the first painting by a Native American artist to be acquired by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Smith’s work has been highlighted in solo exhibitions at Accola Griefen Gallery, the Holter Museum of Art, and Garth Greenan Gallery. She was also featured in the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999 and is also known for her work as a curator and educator, platforming indigenous voices nationwide.
In 2023, Smith’s work was honored with the retrospective “Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map,” which featured more than 130 works at the Whitney Museum of American Art. This was the first time the museum presented a retrospective of an Indigenous American artist.
