Jeffrey Gibson’s practice mixes Indigenous aesthetic histories with the visual language of Modernism to explore culture, history, and identity. The artist works with garments, sculpture, performance, video, and painting to consider the complex and fluid narratives surrounding selfhood in this country. Gibson uses his surroundings as sources, mixing references from contemporary politics with pop culture and queer iconography to create unexpected connections within his world. The exhibition and related performance Jeffrey Gibson: THE SPIRITS ARE LAUGHING evolves out of conversations around Indigenous kinship philosophy— the practice of engaging with the land as an extension of one’s own family or oneself, and looking at everything in our surroundings as an equal living entity. A member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, Gibson’s THE SPIRITS ARE LAUGHING both acknowledges and embraces these perspectives. The artist presents an assemblage of anthropomorphized sculptural heads that incorporate stones, fossils, and other natural materials, representing the passage of geologic and natural time on the Aspen Art Museum rooftop. These are shown in dialogue with a grouping of Gibson’s signature bright flags, each with a different pattern, text, lyric, or slogan. In the galleries, Gibson presents a corresponding video filmed on site in the Aspen landscape that features a group of 15 flag spinners performing and speaking to the land. Performers from the Denver area with a background in colorguard gathered in Aspen in the summer of 2022, creating
choreography paired with song lyrics by Velsum. The songs praise the land we share, acknowledging the sun, the water, the trees, the mountains, the animals, and the moon and stars. THE SPIRITS ARE LAUGHING invites viewers to immerse themselves in the mountainous landscape of the Roaring Fork Valley, and honor natural elements that nourish and enrich our lives. Performers featured in THE SPIRITS ARE LAUGHING include Danya Ahram, Leo Balcer, Katie Cox, Donna Daugherty, Natalie Harris, Madi Miller, Serenity Monroe, Nazhoné Morgan, Madeline Morales, Emily Nunemaker, Omar Pena, Elijah Sena, Rosie Small Farley, Megan Templeton, and Ryan Vela.
Jeffrey Gibson’s work fuses his Choctaw-Cherokee heritage and experience of living in Europe, Asia, and the US with references that span club culture, queer theory, fashion, politics, literature, and art history. His multifaceted practice incorporates painting, performance, sculpture, textiles, and video, and is characterized by vibrant color and pattern. His work can be found in the numerous public and private collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Denver Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Crystal Bridges Museum, and the Wellin Museum, among others. Gibson is the recipient of numerous awards, notably a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (2019), Joan Mitchell Foundation, Painters and Sculptors Grant (2015), and Creative Capital Award (2005). He is represented by Sikkema Jenkins & Co in NYC, Kavi Gupta in Chicago, Roberts Projects in Los Angeles, and Stephen Friedman Gallery in London. Gibson was born in 1972, Colorado, and currently lives and works in the Hudson Valley, New York.
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