American artist Jeffrey Gibson explores the fractured history of Native peoples

In his latest body of work, on view until 22 July at Jessica Silverman in San Francisco, the American artist Jeffrey Gibson explores the collage medium through the lens of his Cherokee and Choctaw heritage.

The works on paper incorporate found objects and imagery, beadwork and textile that have been assembled into intricate arrangements, and interrogate themes of empowerment, consumption, and non-Western modes of relating to each other – issues that have persisted throughout Gibson’s multidisciplinary and multifaceted practice.

Using offcuts, paper scraps, handmade Native American objects like watch bands and belt buckles, and imagery that he has collected and stored for decades, Gibson relates these forgotten materials to the fractured history of Native peoples.

For PRAYING FOR TIME (pictured top), whose title is borrowed from a George Michael song, Gibson subverts the work of Elbridge Ayer Burbank, a 19th-century American artist who made portraits of more than 1,200 Native people, often dressed in garments not of their own tribe or culture. Setting Burbank’s portraits of White Swan and Christian Naiche against vibrant beadwork and patterning, Gibson critiques Burbank’s depiction of Native Americans as a dying race at the time, in a powerful political statement against erasure. 

‘Jeffrey Gibson: ONCE MORE WITH FEELING’ runs until 22 July at Jessica Silverman in San Francisco, jessicasilvermangallery.com

A version of this article appears in the August 2023 issue of Wallpaper* – a guide to creative America – available in print from 6 July, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today