The Frist Art Museum in Nashville will present "An Indigenous Present," an exhibition spanning 100 years of modern and contemporary Indigenous art, from June 26 to September 27, 2026. Co-curated by artist Jeffrey Gibson and independent curator Jenelle Porter, the show features 15 artists who use abstraction as a tool for liberated expression, including Teresa Baker, Raven Chacon, Kimowan Metchewais, Caroline Monnet, George Morrison, Mary Sully, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Kay WalkingStick. Organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, the exhibition draws from Gibson and Porter's landmark 2023 publication of the same title and is structured into five thematic sections that place emerging artists in dialogue with established makers.
This exhibition matters because it challenges conventional expectations of Indigenous art by centering abstraction—a mode often overlooked in narratives about Native North American creativity. By foregrounding artists who push cultural references into new formal territories, the show expands the art-historical canon and counters stereotypes about what contemporary Indigenous art can be. The inclusion of a podcast series produced with WBUR also makes these critical conversations accessible to broader audiences, reinforcing the Frist's role in presenting underrepresented perspectives in American art.