Gallery view of a multicolored installation of textiles including clothing and wall art.

Jeffrey Gibson: They Teach Love

Coeta and Donald Barker Changing Exhibitions Gallery

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Jeffrey Gibson (American, b. 1972). To Name an Other (installation view, 2023). Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation. Photograph courtesy JSMA WSU

Jeffrey Gibson: They Teach Love presents a survey of 20 artworks by Jeffrey Gibson (American, b. 1972), one of today’s foremost contemporary artists, curated exclusively from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation. Gibson, who is of Mississippi Choctaw and Cherokee heritage, combines aspects of Indigenous art and culture with modernist traditions, navigating and disrupting the expectations placed upon Native artists working within the contemporary art world. By uniting sculpture, paintings, prints, and video with elk hides, tipi poles, wool blankets, beadwork, and fringe, Gibson celebrates the artistry of Indigenous cultures. He adorns and converts utilitarian items (including punching bags, flags, banners, and illuminated signs) to art objects that vibrate with spiritual power, carrying his belief that objects, and people alike, have the potential for radical transformation.

The exhibition’s centerpiece is an expansive and immersive work titled To Name An Other (2019) comprised of 51 screen printed elk hide drums and 50 wearable garments. Originally commissioned as a performance by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, To Name An Other marks a turning point in the artist’s career whereby Gibson has increasingly sought out collective-based projects and performances to activate the communities within which he works. Collaboration is at the heart of his recent social practice. Working and learning together may aid in decolonizing minds and institutions, revealing a future we wish to inhabit. In 2024, Gibson was selected as the first Indigenous artist to represent the U.S. Pavilion with a solo presentation at the Venice Biennale, further demonstrating how his vibrant and powerful voice continues to broaden the view of American art history, contemporary times, and our future.

Jeffrey Gibson: They Teach Love – From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation was curated by Ryan Hardesty, Executive Director and Curator of Exhibitions and Collections, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Washington State University, for its originating institution in 2023. Its presentation for the University of Oregon’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art was organized by Danielle Knapp, McCosh Curator.

A rectangular artwork mounted on a white wall featuring a vibrant, geometric "radiating" pattern of concentric diamonds in rainbow colors. Centered on the piece is stylized block text in various colors that reads: "WHEREAS IT IS ESSENTIAL TO JUST GOVERNMENT WE RECOGNIZE THE EQUALITY OF ALL PEOPLE BEFORE THE LAW." The piece is framed by a border of black, white, and yellow checkered triangles.
Jeffrey Gibson (American, b. 1972). WHEREAS IT IS ESSENTIAL TO JUST GOVERNMENT WE RECOGNIZE THE EQUALITY OF ALL PEOPLE BEFORE THE LAW, 2024. Acrylic on canvas, glass beads, plastic beads, inset in custom wood frame, 88 3/8 x 108 3/8 x 2 5/8 in. Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation. 
A sculptural work resembling a heavy punching bag suspended by a chain in a gallery. The top half is encased in intricate beadwork with a geometric pattern of black, white, red, and yellow zigzags. Light blue beaded text on the bag reads "ALL WAYS ALL NOW." A row of copper-colored metallic cones separates the beaded section from a long, dense skirt of multicolored fringe (red, blue, yellow, and black) that reaches toward a white circular base on the floor.
Jeffrey Gibson (American, b. 1972). ALL I EVER WANTED ALL I EVER NEEDED, 2019. found canvas punching bag, glass beads, plastic beads, artificial sinew, steel studs, acrylic paint, steel chain, 85 x 20 x 20 in. (overall). Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation. 
A close-up detail of the "heavy bag" sculpture. The image shows the fine craftsmanship of the geometric beadwork in black, white, red, and yellow, with a portion of the light blue beaded text visible. Below the beads, a dense row of copper-colored metallic cones is attached, with long strands of vibrant blue, red, yellow, and black fringe hanging from them.
Jeffrey Gibson (American, b. 1972). ALL I EVER WANTED ALL I EVER NEEDED, 2019. found canvas punching bag, glass beads, plastic beads, artificial sinew, steel studs, acrylic paint, steel chain, 85 x 20 x 20 in. (overall). Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation. 
A photograph of two people posed within a vibrant, art-filled environment. One person sits against a wall covered in a bold, colorful geometric pattern, wearing a white garment printed with text and adorned with metallic silver fringe. A second person lies on the floor with their head near the first person’s lap, wearing a translucent green tunic over shorts also printed with text. Bright yellow and orange fringe-like materials radiate out from the central figures across a dark floor.
 Jeffrey Gibson (American, b. 1972). Mx Oops and Xavier (The Anthropophagic Effect), edition 1/3, 2019. Digital print, 30 1/4 x 44 7/8 x 1 3/4 in. (frame). Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation. 
A large-scale, colorful sculpture of a humanoid figure standing in a gallery. The figure has a purple, textured head topped with a multicolored knit-style cap. Its torso is covered in layers of vibrant blue and red fringe. The shoulders are adorned with white, spiky protrusions tipped with black. Long black and white fringe flows down the legs, pooling onto a black square base on a light wood floor. The "feet" are represented by starburst patterns of red and white tipped spikes.
Jeffrey Gibson (American, b. 1972). Untitled Figure 1, 2022. Plastic bone pipe beads, fringe, glass beads, artificial sinew, tin cones, sea glass, acrylic felt, steel armature and powder coat varnish, 71 1/2 x 39 x 26 in. (overall). Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation.