By Phoebe Farris (Powhatan-Pamunkey)
“Indigenous Identities: Here, Now & Always,” on exhibition at Rutgers University’s Zimmerli Art Museum now through December 21, 2025, was curated by the late artist Jaune Quick-too-See Smith (January 15, 1940-January 24, 2025). The recent passing of Quick-too-See Smith, who was a citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation of Montana, is a tragic loss for her family, the contemporary art world, and for Indigenous Peoples across Turtle Island.
Attending this exhibition in person or viewing it online and purchasing its catalog (available in May 2025 at the museum or via the Hirmer Publishers website) are some of the ways people can honor the artistic legacy and social justice advocacy of this important artist.
“For years, the media has portrayed us as a vanishing race, and museums historically have ignored us. It’s an interesting moment that we find ourselves having captured the attention of the art world. My hope with exhibitions like this one is to place Native Americans in our contemporary present and in every possible future,” Quick-to-See Smith said previously.
Maura Reilly, Director of the Zimmerli Art Museum, chose to have this exhibition “wholly Indigenous-led,” with Quick-too-See Smith as the Guest Curator assisted by Raven Manygoats (Dine’), a Graduate Assistant in the museum’s Art of the Americas department. “Indigenous Identities" consists of over 100 works of art, including 2- and 3-D pieces, installations, and video from 50 Tribes across Turtle Island. Themes relating to land and social, Tribal, and political issues are reflected by a multi-generational group of artists, many of whom Quick-to-See Smith collaborated with over the years as an artist/curator/educator/activist and in her 2023 exhibition, “The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans,” at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Work by Jaune Quick-too-See Smith.
Also on view at Zimmerli is the exhibit, “Hope with Humor: Works by Jaune Quick-too-See Smith from the Collection,” which features works created by the artist between 1986-2001, curated by Manygoats, as well as the children’s book, “My Powerful Hair,” written by Carole Lindstrom (Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe) and illustrated by Steph Littlebird (Oregon Grand Ronde Confederated Tribes), curated by Nicole Simpson.
Below is a short, non-exhaustive list of emerging, mid-career, and Elder artists with pieces featured in the exhibition, followed by interviews with participating artists Norman Akers, John Hitchcock, and Neal Ambrose-Smith, and Raven Manygoats.
“She Never Dances Alone” by Jeffrey Gibson (Mississippi Band of Choctaw and Cherokee descent), mixed media, 2001.
“Shouting Lightening from Their Eyes” by John Hitchcock (Comanche, Kiowa) and Northern European ancestry, lithograph, 2021.
“Drowning Elk” by Norman Akers, (Osage Nation), oil on canvas, 2020.
“Double Shift” by Native Art Department International (Anishnaabek Wasauksing First Nation), acrylic paint on custom canvas clothing.
“Ma’s House: Reciprocity Project” by Jeremy Dennis (Shinnecock Tribal member), documentary video, 2022.
“Anticipation” by Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie (Taskig/Dine’), hand-pieced photo collage on paper, 2006.
“Buffalo Country” by Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma) and Anglo, oil on panel, 2018.
“Abstract in Your Home” by Neal Ambrose-Smith, (Descendant of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation), neon mixed media, 2009.
Read interviews with artists:
- John Hitchcock (Comanche, Kiowa, and Northern European Ancestry)
- Neal Ambrose-Smith (Descendant of Confederate Salish and Kootenai Nation of Montana)
- Norman Akers (Citizen of the Osage Nation)
- Raven Manygoats (Diné), assistant curator of the exhibition
Phoebe Mills Farris, Ph.D. (Powhatan-Pamunkey) is a Purdue University Professor emerita, photographer, and freelance art critic.
Top art by Jaune Quick-too-See Smith.
