Jessica Silverman announces Jeffrey Gibson: ONCE MORE WITH FEELING, the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, running from June 1 to July 22, 2023. This exhibition will premiere nine new collage works on paper, incorporating found objects and images, beadwork, and textiles into intricate arrangements. Concurrent to the exhibition is the solo museum exhibition Jeffrey Gibson: THE SPIRITS ARE LAUGHING at Aspen Art Museum on view through November 5, 2023, as well as the forthcoming book An Indigenous Present, conceived and edited by the artist.
Drawing on his Cherokee and Choctaw heritage throughout his varied practice, collage has provided Gibson a medium towards both self-discovery and inquiry into consumption, empowerment, and non-Western modes of relating to one another. The artist collects offcuts, paper scraps, objects, and imagery and stores them over decades in his studio. He assembles these disparate items to create new works, relating forgotten materials to the fractured history of Native peoples.
Networks of Indigenous kinship and care run throughout the exhibition, which shares its title with Gibson’s 2023 collage ONCE MORE WITH FEELING—the notable lyrics of Joan Armatrading’s “Love and Affection.” Set against a vivid red and green geometric background, the artist assembles found Native American handmade objects, like watch bands and belt buckles collected from online sellers with little discernible history, alongside an image of an unnamed Native woman’s face. Taken from a book illustrating “primitive cultures,” Gibson rejects the image’s origin, presenting the woman anew, self-assured and autonomous from the settler’s gaze.
