Installation view of "Indigenous Identities: Here, Now & Always" at the Zimmerli Art Museum. Photo by McKay Imaging Photography.
(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- Currently on view at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University—New Brunswick, Indigenous Identities: Here, Now & Always is an unprecedented survey of contemporary Native American art, the largest of its kind to date, curated by the late Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation).
Comprising over 100 works across a range of media, the exhibition explores the multiplicities of indigeneity through the diverse practices of 97 artists—representing 74 Indigenous nations and communities across the United States—and asserts the inextricability of Native American Art from the contemporary canon. Indigenous Identities marks the final and most ambitious curatorial endeavor in the 60-year career of the acclaimed artist, who passed away on January 24, 2025, shortly before the exhibition’s opening on February 1. The exhibition remains on view for the entire calendar year through December 21, 2025.
“For years, the media has portrayed us as a vanishing race and museums historically have ignored us. It’s an interesting moment that we find ourselves in, having captured the attention of the art world. My hope with exhibitions like this one, is to place Native Americans in our contemporary present and in every possible future,” said Guest Curator and Artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. “That means moving beyond the silos that have confined Native American art and instead embracing the infinity of Indigenous identity. This exhibition is a celebration of life.”
“It has been an honor to work with Jaune Quick-to-See Smith to realize this survey, which has been a shared dream for over a decade. In its expansive and thoughtful curation, the exhibition emphasizes Jaune’s pivotal role in nurturing and connecting generations of artists, and in bringing forth a living Native Art history,” said Maura Reilly, Ph.D., Director of the Zimmerli Art Museum. “This project is wholly Indigenous-led—from curation and didactics to book and exhibition design—and is a critical reflection of the Zimmerli’s mission to open our institution to a multitude of artistic voices and to decolonize the museum.”
Celebrating the breadth of groundbreaking contemporary art made by Native artists, Indigenous Identities surfaces a series of guiding concepts—land, social, tribal, and political—that unify the works on view and speak to the permeability of art in Native American life. Featuring jewelry, ceramics, beadwork, and basketry alongside painting, sculpture, and installation, the exhibition confronts the idea that traditional forms of making are artifacts of a past life and acknowledges these practices and their contemporary resonance.
In curating Indigenous Identities, Smith invited artists to help select the work that would represent them in the exhibition, a reciprocal curatorial practice that subverts the more typical institutional processes that are prescriptive and predetermined. The resulting exhibition is expansive in the range of works presented, and in the artists whose voices are included. Furthering a Native Art history that is non-linear and inclusive, Smith situates the work of elders, such as G. Peter Jemison, George Longfish, and Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, alongside works by younger generations including George Alexander and Tyrrell Tapaha; emerging artists join celebrated names such as Jeffrey Gibson, Raven Chacon, Wendy Red Star, and Julie Buffalohead.
Indigenous Identities is on view throughout the Zimmerli’s special exhibition space, which comprises 5,000 square feet, with interventions within the permanent collection space. Exhibition highlights include:
* Confronting historical erasure, Marie Watt’s Skywalker/Skyscraper (Twins) (2020), an example of her well-known work with reclaimed wool blankets, honors Haudenosaunee ironworkers who helped build the skyscrapers of New York City.
* Nicholas Galanin’s photograph Never Forget (2021) references the iconic Hollywood sign to form a powerful reminder of Indigenous sovereignty and the ongoing Land Back movement.
* G. Peter Jemison’s painting Red Power (1973) is a celebration of the multiplicities of Indigenous identities and modes of resistance.
* Engaging ceramic and metals, Rose B. Simpson’s X-Ray (2021) blends traditional Pueblo pottery techniques with steel to explore themes of cultural identity.
* Jeffrey Gibson’s multimedia painting She Never Dances Alone (2021) honors the strength and persistence of Indigenous women and is an example of Gibson’s work to make visible the ongoing crisis of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW).
* Recent photographic work by Cara Romero, including Arla Lucia (2019) and Starlight, Starbright (2023), breaks down monolithic stereotypes of Indigenous women.
* Jackie Larson Bread’s Triangular Beaded Trinket Box, Chief Joseph (2007) showcases the artist’s distinctive style of pictorial beadwork that honors some of her Blackfeet ancestors.
* Cannupa Hanska-Luger’s Mirror Shield Project (2016) documents the Water Protectors’ fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016 and how art can be used as a tool against aggression.
On view concurrently with Indigenous Identities and organized in conjunction with the survey is a focused exhibition of work by Smith from the Zimmerli’s own collection. Featuring nine works created between 1986 and 2001, Hope with Humor: Works by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith from the Collection explores how Smith’s artistic practice honors Indigenous survival and resilience and reflects her approach to preserving Native cultures, ceremonies, and traditions through both wit and optimism. The exhibition is curated by Raven Manygoats (Diné), Graduate Assistant, Art of the Americas, who is also assisting on the curation of Indigenous Identities.
Also on view is an exhibition on the children’s book My Powerful Hair by the best-selling author Carole Lindstrom (enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe), illustrated by Steph Littlebird (registered member of Oregon’s Grand Ronde Confederated Tribes). The exhibition is organized by Nicole Simpson, Curator of Prints and Drawings.
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation; 1940 - 2025) is considered among the most renowned and influential contemporary Native American artists, an achievement acknowledged with a critically acclaimed retrospective Memory Map at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2023. A self-proclaimed cultural arts worker as well as a curator, lecturer, printmaker, freelance professor, and mentor, Smith often employed humor and satire in her artistic practice to examine myths, stereotypes, and the paradox of American Indian life in contrast to the consumerism of American society. Smith organized over 30 exhibitions of Native American art over more than 40 years, including The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. (2023) and foundational early shows such as Grey Canyon (1983), and Contemporary Native American Photography (1984), and Women of Sweetgrass, Cedar and Sage: Contemporary Art by Native American Women (1985).
Smith’s work is in the collections of the Albuquerque Museum; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis; Heard Museum, Phoenix; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Missoula Art Museum, Montana; Museo de Arte Moderno, Quito, Ecuador; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and Yellowstone Art Museum, Montana, among many others.
Smith received numerous awards for her work and has been recognized with honorary doctorates from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (1992); Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia (1998); Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston (2003); and the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque (2009). She received an A.A. degree from Olympic College in Bremerton, Washington, in 1960; a B.A. in art education from Framingham State College, Massachusetts, in 1976; and an M.A. in Visual Arts from the University of New Mexico in 1980.
PUBLICATION - Indigenous Identities is accompanied by a full-color catalogue of the same title that is fully Indigenous-led. In addition to an interview with Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation) and her son, Neal Ambrose-Smith (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation of Montana), the publication includes essays by Native American scholars and artists: Jennifer Woodcock-Medicine Horse, Mario Caro (Indigenous American), Lou Cornum (Navajo), Heid E. Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe), Lara Evans (Cherokee Nation), Chelsea M. Herr (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma), Anya Montiel (Tohono O’odham), and Stacy Pratt (Mvskoke). RoseMary Diaz (Santa Clara Pueblo) and Kathleen Sleboda (C’eletkwmx/Nlaka’pamux) provided editing and design of the book. The catalogue will be available in May 2025 at the museum and online via Hirmer Publishers.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS - Indigenous Identities is complemented by a robust schedule of free public and academic programs occurring at the Zimmerli throughout the year, which kicked off with the Opening Reception on February 1, 2025, featuring a panel with Neal Ambrose-Smith and John Hitchcock (Comanche, Kiowa, and Northern European Ancestry). Additional spring events include virtual artist talks, an interdisciplinary roundtable, a SparkNight after-hours art party highlighting Native American women artists, and a special program and curriculum guide for K-12 educators, among others. Fall events include a “Tekcno Powwow” activation at the museum by participating artist Bently Spang in October 2025 and a SparkNight performance by Laura Ortman.
For more information about these and other programs and to register for an event, please visit zimmerli.rutgers.edu/events.
Indigenous Identities: Here, Now & Always is on view from February 1 to December 21, 2025 (please note: the Zimmerli closes to the public during the month of August). The exhibition is organized by the Zimmerli Art Museum and curated by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, with assistance from Graduate Assistant, Raven Manygoats. The exhibition, publication, and correlating public programs are supported by the Middlesex County Board of County Commissioners through a grant award from the Middlesex County Cultural and Arts Trust Fund, National Endowment for the Arts, Nissan Foundation, and Rutgers University. Additional support is provided by donors to Zimmerli's Major Exhibitions Fund: Kathrin and James Bergin and Sundaa and Randy Jones. Generous support for bilingual text was provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program.
The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum houses more than 70,000 works of art, with strengths in the Art of the Americas, European Art, Russian Art & Soviet Nonconformist Art, and Original Illustrations for Children's Literature. The permanent collections include works in all mediums, spanning from antiquity to the present day, providing representative examples of the museum’s research and teaching message at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, which stands among America’s highest-ranked, most diverse public research universities. Founded in 1766, as one of only nine colonial colleges established before the American Revolution, Rutgers is the nation’s eighth-oldest institution of higher learning.
Admission is free to the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers. The museum is located at 71 Hamilton Street (at George Street) on the College Avenue Campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick. The Zimmerli is a short walk from the NJ Transit train station in New Brunswick, midway between New York City and Philadelphia.
The Zimmerli Art Museum is open Wednesday and Friday, 11:00am to 6:00pm; Thursday, 11:00am to 8:00pm; and Saturday and Sunday, noon to 5:00pm. The museum is closed Monday and Tuesday, as well as major holidays and the month of August.
For the most current information, including parking and accessibility, visit zimmerli.rutgers.edu/visit.
The Zimmerli is a proud partner of Bloomberg Connects, an app that allows visitors to enhance their experience in the exhibition galleries through audio tours, videos, and more, joining a growing roster of international art institutions. This digital guide to cultural organizations around the world makes it easy to access and engage with arts and culture from mobile devices, anytime, anywhere. It offers information about current exhibitions at a portfolio of hundreds of participating cultural partners through dynamic content tailored to each organization. Participating collections currently include botanical gardens, performance venues, outdoor sculpture parks, and world-class museums. Features include expert commentary, video highlights, pinch-and-zoom capability and exhibition maps. The app can be downloaded for free via Google Play or the App Store. Read more about the Zimmerli's development of its digital guide.
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