An Indigenous Present focuses on the development of abstraction in the work of contemporary North American Indigenous artists, and was originally co-curated by artist Jeffrey Gibson, a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, and independent curator Jenelle Porter at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. The iteration at the Frye Art Museum is organized by Georgia Erger. 

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Cree Prayer Series #1, 1978. Acrylic and pastel on paper. Courtesy the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York. © Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. Photo: ShootART/Christopher Burke Studios

The exhibition emerges from Gibson’s 2023 landmark publication of the same name, and spans one hundred years of contemporary Indigenous art. Highlighting a continuum of elders and emerging makers, the survey foregrounds individual practices while acknowledging shared histories. It features new commissions and existing works by approximately fifteen artists, including Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Dakota Mace, Caroline Monnet, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Kay Walkingstick. In consultation with Erger, Gibson, and Porter, the Frye curatorial team will also organize a companion exhibition focused on Northwest Indigenous contemporary art. 

Sky Hopinka, Mnemonics of Shape and Reason, 2021 (still). HD video, stereo, and color. Courtesy the artist and Broadway Gallery, New York. © Sky Hopinka

All exhibitions and associated public programs will be developed with community approvals and advisory support from Indigenous arts leaders. The Frye will also lend its institutional space and resources in support of their collaborators’ independent activities. In hosting this exhibition the Frye furthers its commitment to exhibiting and collecting Indigenous art, following more than a decade of significant exhibitions by Indigenous artists, including Natalie Ball, Nicholas Galanin, and Sky Hopinka—each of whom is featured in both the exhibition and publication.

Mary Sully, Amelia Earhart, ca.1920–40. Colored pencil on paper. Courtesy the Mary Sully Foundation

Georgia Erger is Curator at the Frye Art Museum, where she has organized exhibitions and accompanying publications including Stephanie Syjuco: After/Images (2024), Sky Hopinka: Subterranean Ceremonies (2024), and Clarissa Tossin: to take root among the stars (2023). Previously, she served as Assistant Curator at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University (MSU Broad), where her projects included solo presentations by Claudia Rankine and John Lucas, Caroline Monnet, and Joseph Tisiga, as well as group and collections-based exhibitions such as Hyper Text: The Video Essay and the Expanded Field of Audiovisuality (2022). She holds an MA in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art and a BA in Art History and English from the University of Toronto. 

Jeffrey Gibson is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and convener celebrated for his painting, installation, video, and performance work. A member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, Gibson represented the US at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024. In June 2025, he unveiled a site-specific installation at Kunsthaus Zürich. He was selected for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2025 Genesis Facade Commission and will present new work for the historic exterior this fall. His work is held in major collections, including The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) (New York), the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), and the National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC). He is an artist-in-residence at Bard College.

Jenelle Porter is a curator and writer. In collaboration with artist Jeffrey Gibson, she is the curator of An Indigenous Present (2025) at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA/Boston). Recent exhibitions include Barbara T. Smith: Proof, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA) (2023) and Kay Sekimachi: Geometries, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) (2021). She co-edited An Indigenous Present (2023) with Jeffrey Gibson, and has authored many books and essays on artists such as Polly Apfelbaum, Kathy Butterly, Sam Gilliam, and Liz Larner. From 2011–15, Porter was the Mannion Family Senior Curator at the ICA/Boston. Porter held curatorial positions at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, Artists Space (New York), the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), and the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York). 

Hugo Cervantes, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG)