Artist Jeffrey Gibson to Create Four New Sculptures for The Met's Fifth Avenue Facade

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Episode Transcript

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This fall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will unveil a new
suite of sculptures by acclaimedinterdisciplinary artist Jeffrey
Gibson, born 1972 Colorado Springs, Co, in the niches of
its 5th Ave. Facade.
A member of the Mississippi Bandof Choctaw Indians and of
Cherokee descent, Gibson will create 4 figurative sculptures

(00:22):
that reflect on the interconnected relationships
between all living beings and the environment.
Commissioned by the Museum, the Genesis Facade Commission,
Jeffrey Gibson, The Animal that Therefore I Am will be on view
from September 12th. 2020. Five through June 9th. 2020. 6

(00:44):
The exhibition is presented by Genesis.
Major support is provided by Oscar L Tang and HM Agnes Hsu
Tang, the Director S Fund, and Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon B
Polsky. Additional support is provided
by Sarah Arison and Helen Lee Warren and David Warren and the

(01:05):
Bronzini vendor family. Jeffrey Gibson is one of the
most remarkable artists of his generation and a pioneering
figure within the field of Native and indigenous art, said
Max Holland, the Met S Marina Kellen French director and chief
executive officer. These new works are based on his
signature use of unconventional materials and remagent forms to

(01:28):
explore often overlooked histories and the natural world.
We look forward to unveiling hismonumental sculptures for the
Met S iconic 5th Ave. Facade.
David Breslin Leonard A Lauder curator in charge modern and
contemporary art, said Jeffrey Gibson is an artist brilliantly

(01:48):
attuned to the varieties of life.
Our world holds the human, the animal, the land itself.
His art vibrates and bristles with dead life, the histories
that never leave us, and the futures that his vision makes
possible. Gibson's project for the Genesis
Facade Commission will be the 6th in a series of commissions

(02:09):
for the historic exterior the artist, as new works for the
niches, will draw upon his long standing and highly developed
iconography, one built upon a dynamic visual language that
fuses indigenous worldviews and imagery with abstraction,
patterning, materiality and text.
This project is the latest in the Met S series of contemporary

(02:33):
commissions in which the museum invites artists to create new
works of art, establishing A dialogue between the artists
practice, the Met Collection, the Physical Museum, and the
Met's audiences About the ArtistAn interdisciplinary artist who
grew up in the United States, Germany, and Korea, Jeffrey

(02:54):
Gibson S expansive body of work ranges from hard edged abstract
paintings to a rich practice of performance and filmmaking, to
significant work as artist, convener, and curator.
Since the 2000s, Gibson S work, which often incorporates
Indigenous aesthetic and material traditions, has
consistently revealed new modalities for abstraction, the

(03:17):
use of text, and color, applyinghis formal mastery to concepts
such as human connection and collective identity.
Notably, Gibson S work has introduced a broad range of
recurring sources, material elements, and imagery, while
offering a critique of the reductive ways in which
Indigenous culture has been historically flattened and

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misappropriated. Recent solo exhibitions include
Jeffrey Gibson, The Space in Which to Place Me, the Broad.
2020. 5 Jeffrey Gibson Powerful because we read different mass
mocha. 2020. 4 This Burning World Jeffrey Gibson, ICA, San
Francisco. 2020. 2 Jeffrey Gibson, The Body Electric Site,

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Santa Fe. 2020. 2 Jeffrey GibsonThey come from Fire Portland Art
Museum. 2020. 2 Jeffrey Gibson Infinite Indigenous queer love
decorative as sculpture, park and museum. 2022.
And Jeffrey Gibson like a hammerDenver Art Museum, 2018 Gibson

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was selected to represent the United States at La Biennale
divinezia, the 60th international art exhibition in.
2020. 4 Gibson also conceived ofand Co edited the landmark
volume and Indigenous present. 2020. 3 which showcases diverse
approaches to indigenous concepts, forms, and media.

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His work is included in the permanent collections of the
Denver Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of
Modern Art, New York National Gallery of Canada, National
Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Portland Art Museum, Smithsonian
National Museum of the American Indian, and the Whitney Museum

(05:12):
of American Art, among others. Gibson has received many
distinguished awards, including the John D and Catherine T
MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Award 2019, and is currently an
artist in residence at Bard College in Annandale, NY.
He lives and works in Hudson, NYCredits the Genesis Facade

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Commission. Jeffrey Gibson, the animal that
therefore I am, is conceived by the artist in consultation with
Jane Panetta, the Erin I Fleischmann Curator in the
Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Met.
The exhibition will be featured on the Met S website as well as
on social media via the hashtagsGenesis Facade Commission and

(05:59):
Met Jeffrey Gibson.