NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ.- An unprecedented survey of contemporary Native American art curated by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation) opened at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University—New Brunswick. Indigenous Identities: Here, Now & Always marks the largest curatorial endeavor in the acclaimed artist’s 60-year career and emphasizes her pivotal role in bringing forth a living Native Art history. The exhibition is also the largest exhibition of contemporary Native American art at a museum to date. Comprising over 100 works across a range of media, from beadwork and jewelry to video and painting, Indigenous Identities foregrounds the significance of identity in artmaking through the diverse practices of 97 artists, representing more than 50 distinct Indigenous nations and tribes across the United States. On view for the entire calendar year from February 1 to December 21, 2025, the exhibition explores the multiplicities of indigeneity and asserts the inextricability of Native American Art from the contemporary canon.

“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 in, 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,” said Guest Curator and Artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. “That means moving beyond the silos that have confined Native American art and instead embracing the infinity of Indigenous identity. This exhibition is a celebration of life.”

“We are honored to work with Jaune Quick-to-See Smith to realize this survey, which has been a shared dream for over a decade,” said Maura Reilly, Ph.D., Director of the Zimmerli Art Museum. “This project is wholly Indigenous-led—from curation and didactics to book and exhibition design—and is a critical reflection of the Zimmerli’s mission to open our institution to a multitude of artistic voices and to decolonize the museum.”

Celebrating the breadth of groundbreaking contemporary art made by Native artists, Indigenous Identities surfaces a series of guiding concepts—land, social, tribal, and political—that unify the works on view and speak to the permeability of art in Native American life. Featuring jewelry, ceramics, beadwork, and basketry alongside painting, sculpture, and installation, the exhibition confronts the idea that traditional forms of making are artifacts of a past life and acknowledges these practices and their contemporary resonance.

In curating Indigenous Identities, Smith invited artists to help select the work that would represent them in the exhibition, a reciprocal curatorial practice that subverts the more typical institutional processes that are prescriptive and predetermined. The resulting exhibition is expansive in the range of works presented, and in the artists whose voices are included. Furthering a Native Art history that is non-linear and inclusive, Smith situates the work of elders, such as G. Peter Jemison, George Longfish, and Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, alongside works by younger generations including George Alexander and Tyrrell Tapaha; lesser-known artists join celebrated names such as Jeffrey Gibson, Raven Chacon, Wendy Red Star, and Julie Buffalohead.

Indigenous Identities is on view throughout the Zimmerli’s special exhibition space, which comprises 5,000 square feet, with interventions within the permanent collection space. Exhibition highlights include:

• Confronting historical erasure, Marie Watt’s Skywalker/Skyscraper (Twins) (2020), an example of her well-known work with reclaimed wool blankets, honors Haudenosaunee ironworkers who helped build the skyscrapers of New York City.

• Nicholas Galanin’s photograph Never Forget (2021) references the iconic Hollywood sign to form a powerful reminder of Indigenous sovereignty and the ongoing Land Back movement.

• G. Peter Jemison’s painting Red Power (1973) is a celebration of the multiplicities of Indigenous identities and modes of resistance.

• Engaging ceramic and metals, Rose B. Simpson’s X-Ray (2021) blends traditional Pueblo pottery techniques with steel to explore themes of cultural identity.

• Jeffrey Gibson’s multimedia painting She Never Dances Alone (2021) honors the strength and persistence of Indigenous women and is an example of Gibson’s work to make visible the ongoing crisis of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW).

• Recent photographic work by Cara Romero, including Arla Lucia (2019) and Starlight, Starbright (2023), breaks down monolithic stereotypes of Indigenous women.

• Jackie Larson Bread’s Triangular Beaded Trinket Box, Chief Joseph (2007) showcases the artist’s distinctive style of pictorial beadwork that honors some of her Blackfeet ancestors.

• Cannupa Hanska-Luger’s Mirror Shield Project (2016) documents the Water Protectors’ fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016 and how art can be used as a tool against aggression.