Hauser & Wirth has announced its global representation of Indigenous American artist Jeffrey Gibson in collaboration with New York gallery Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
The mega-gallery will present a new work by Gibson, which I will continue to change (2024) as part of its presentation at Art Basel Paris later this month. Additionally, the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery will take place in Paris next October. The announcement comes in a year when Gibson became the first Indigenous American artist to represent the United States in a solo presentation at the Venice Biennale with a show titled “the space in which to place me.”
Born in 1972, Gibson earned a Bachelor’s degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1995, after which he furthered his studies at the Royal College of Art in London, obtaining an MFA in painting in 1998.
Over the last three decades, Gibson has become known for his abstract work, characterized by its dynamic, bright colors and geometric patterns. A member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, his work incorporates histories from American, Indigenous, and queer histories.
“Jeffrey occupies a unique position in the sweep of contemporary art, as both an astute cultural critic and a virtuosic handler of form, color, and the synthesis of many art historical languages in a range of mediums,” said Marc Payot, president of Hauser & Wirth. “Through his paintings, sculpture, public installations, performances, and collaborations to advance learning, Jeffrey illuminates the most challenging and profound issues with wit and joy. He uses his art to generate an ongoing critique of American culture that is simultaneously fierce and loving, forceful and radiant—and ultimately incredibly generous in the way it includes us all.”
According to ARTnews, the new partnership means that Gibson will cease to work with Stephen Friedman Gallery in London, Roberts Projects in Los Angeles, and Jessica Silverman in San Francisco. He had previously left Chicago’s Kavi Gupta in 2023.
Living and working in Hudson, New York, Gibson is currently an artist-in-residence at Bard College. An upcoming solo exhibition of the artist, “POWER FULL BECAUSE WE’RE DIFFERENT,” will launch at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts in November 2024. Furthermore, in September 2025, Gibson will be the sixth artist commissioned to create outdoor works for the facade of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Hauser & Wirth’s representation of Gibson follows several major artist announcements for the gallery. In the last year, the mega gallery has added artists, such as Artsy Vanguard 2022 alum Michaela Yearwood-Dan in September, British painter George Rouy in May, and South African artist William Kentridge in March.
