"Shining a Light: 25 Years of Contemporary Native Art Curation"
Tuesday, March 4th, 4:45 PM
Goldwin Smith Hall G22
Abstract
Over the past 25 years, contemporary Native art has experienced a sea-change in representation in the art world. The landscape has shifted dramatically from our exhibitions at the turn of the twenty-first century barely being noticed to the 2024 selection of Jeffrey Gibson, a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and Cherokee, to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale. This is not the Cinderella tale that many in the field were seeking at the beginning of my career. This lecture will explore that journey and changes in the field through the lens of my experience as a curator at the American Indian Community House Gallery (a Native-led community art gallery), the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (a federal institution), and now at the Portland Art Museum, in Portland, Oregon.
Biography
Kathleen Ash-Milby is Curator of Native American Art at the Portland Art Museum (Oregon), appointed in 2019. She was a commissioner and curator for Jeffrey Gibson’s exhibition in the U.S. Pavilion, la Biennale di Venezia (2024), a collaboration between the Portland Art Museum and SITE Santa Fe. Previously as associate curator, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (New York), she organized numerous solo and thematic group exhibitions including Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe; Transformer: Native Art in Light and Sound; and Kay WalkingStick: An American Artist. She was curator and co-director of the American Indian Community House Gallery, New York City, 2000-2005. Ash-Milby was a 2015 Center for Curatorial Leadership Program fellow and served on the boards of the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective and Native American Art Studies Association. A member of the Navajo Nation, her Master of Arts is from the University of New Mexico.
