A Subtle Power and Particular Magic: An Indigenous Present at ICA Boston

Co-organized by artist Jeffrey Gibson (Mississippi Choctaw, Cherokee) and independent curator Jenelle Porter, An Indigenous Present offers an exploration of abstraction employed by 15 emerging and elder Indigenous artists.

A range of artworks by George Morrison are featured throughout the exhibition, including midcentury paintings, works on paper, and selections from his later Horizon series. Murray Whyte of The Boston Globe praises the “rough, muscular gestures” of a 1962 painting (above, right), which greets visitors in the entryway of the exhibition alongside works on paper by Mary Sully. Other works, such as Three Surrealist Forms—Automatic (1984), were created after Morrison returned to his home state of Minnesota from New York City. Whyte comments on how Morrison’s commitment to abstraction and responsiveness to materials and place undercut the dominant art world’s view of Indigenous artistic production.

An Indigenous Present emerges from a volume of the same name, co-edited by Gibson and Porter and featuring over 60 contemporary artists. The exhibition focuses on 15 of those artists, including, in addition to Morrison, Teresa Baker, Raven Chacon, Sky Hopinka, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill, George Longfish, Dakota Mace, Kimowan Metchewais, Caroline Monnet, Audie Murray, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Mary Sully, Anna Tsouhlarakis, and Kay WalkingStick.
The exhibition is on view at ICA Boston through March 8, 2026, and travels to the Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (June 26–September 27, 2026); the Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA (November 7, 2026–February 14, 2027); and the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC (March–September 2027).