Zuckerman Museum of Art Fall Exhibits (tuesdays)

From the venue:

Jeffrey Gibson: They Teach Love

August 27 - December 7

Jeffrey Gibson asks us to co-envision a future and to move toward it. Ceaselessly prioritizing collective imagination as a tool toward manifestation and realization, the artist has stated, “Don’t accept the circumstances you are in; acknowledge that you are in them and then find a future.” Gibson’s form of hard-earned optimism evokes a time frame that unites and collapses past, present, and future into a flowing and responsive mindset, rooted in the belief that a critical engagement with the past can help us shape a brighter horizon. This major exhibition is devoted to one of today’s foremost artists, whose vibrant interdisciplinary practice combines sculpture and painting, beadwork and video, words and images, incorporating rawhide, tipi poles, sterling silver, wool blankets, jingles, fringe, and sinew—materials that refer to American Indian cultures toward the adornment of quotidian objects such as punching bags, flags, banners, and illuminated signs. Gibson, who is of Mississippi Choctaw and Cherokee heritage, combines aspects of Indigenous art and culture with modernist traditions, navigating and disrupting the expectations placed upon Native artists working within the contemporary art world. At the root of his enterprise lies a core value—objects, and people alike, carry the potential for radical transformation.

Ruth V. Zuckerman Collection: Inside Out

Long-term display located in the Ruth Zuckerman Pavilion

Curated by Teresa Bramlette Reeves

For the preservation of artwork, museums must often hold their permanent collections in storage rather than in public view. “Visible storage,” maintains the necessary safe-keeping of the objects while allowing museum visitors to see and study work that would otherwise be unavailable. This installation employs visible storage to showcase a substantial number of Ruth Zuckerman’s sculptures and drawings from the KSU Permanent Collection, while making aspects of a collection’s care transparent for the public.

Project Wall North and East: Jeffrey Gibson

Image credit: Jeffrey Gibson (Native American, Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and Cherokee), WE PLAY ENDLESSLY, 2018. Stained glass and light source. Image courtesy of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation.

In association with They Teach Love, From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation

Project Wall West: Matthew Kirk

August 27 - December 7

Matthew Kirk (b. 1978, Ganado, AZ) is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. A self-taught artist, Kirk has worked for over twelve years in New York City as a professional art handler— a trade that has often influenced his artistic practice in terms of utilizing readily available materials to make his art. His gestural paintings and abstract assemblages are steeped in symbolism and iconography that relate to the visual language of the Navajo, while his use of the grid as compositional armature takes structural inspiration from traditional Navajo weavings and rugs, as well as topographical maps and urban landscapes. Kirk states, “Just as family, work, current events, and city life are reflected in the work, my Indian heritage plays an important, but nuanced role.” Kirk’s work is currently featured in the META tech giant’s new complex in NYC alongside other site-specific installations by artists Baseera Khan and Liz Collins, among others. Kirk has exhibited at Adams and Ollman, Portland; Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago; Louis B. James, New York; and Exit Art, New York. In 2019, Kirk was awarded the Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is represented by Fierman Gallery in New York City.