A New Vision for Native American Art at Portland Art Museum
At PAM, galleries showing Indigenous works have been reinstalled and reimagined. Tucked in the Portland Art Museum’s refreshed second-floor galleries hangs a vibrant, kaleidoscopic artwork of geometric patterns overlaid with the words “Past + Future = Present.” Created by Choctaw and Cherokee artist Jeffrey Gibson for the US Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale, the piece is part of Shifting the Narrative: 21st Century Acquisitions, an exhibition that kicked off last fall when the museum unveiled its transformed space. Displayed alongside flat bags from the Columbia River Plateau region, Choctaw basketry, Northwest Coast transformation masks, and works from contemporary artists Lillian Pitt, Julie Buffalohead, Sara Siestreem, and Will Wilson, Gibson’s words also point to a curatorial shift.
