ZURICH.- The US artist Jeffrey Gibson has been transformed the foyer of the Chipperfield building into a monumental installation that is freely accessible, colourful and inviting. This first commission for an artist to create a new work specially for the entrance hall elevates it into a fully-fledged art space – open to all at no cost. It is the realization of Chipperfield’s idea for a roofed-over public space: a location for encounters, art and urban society.

Jeffrey Gibson metabolizes Western stylistic influences and North American Indigenous traditions to evolve a distinct aesthetic that interrogates cultural boundaries and deconstructs traditional modes of thinking. For the foyer of the Chipperfield building, the artist has created his first work in situ – a site- responsive installation that redefines the public space through its artistic language. For over two decades, Gibson has been working at the interface of painting, installation, video and performance. Vibrant colours, complex patterns, found objects and sounds blend into multi-layered compositions that explore global histories while blurring the boundaries between craft and fine art.

AN INSTALLATION FOR THE HAEFNER FOYER

For Gibson’s first presentation in a continental European museum following his celebrated solo exhibition for the 2024 US Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale, and prior to the unveiling of new façade sculptures at the Metropolitan Museum in New York in September 2025, the artist developped an installation specifically for the Haefner Foyer of the Chipperfield building – ‘BOSHULLICHI / INLƲCHI – WE WILL CONTINUE TO CHANGE’. His spatial design combines painting, sculpture, screen printing, beadwork, ceramics and textiles into an ensemble – an immersive, total work of art that also serves as a backdrop for performative interventions. Gibson’s formal repertoire and use of materials engages North American Indigenous traditions from weaving and beadwork to ceramics and basketry. His interest in personal adornment and dress as sculptural objects informs his use of fringe, ribbon and jingles drawn from historical and contemporary aesthetics of Native American dance and powwow regalia. These materials are layered on top of painted canvases, sculptures and entire buildings.

Gibson investigates the formal possibilities of geometric and gestural abstraction through a complex interaction of pattern, colour and text. This interplay situates his art in dialogue with artists from Kazimir Malevich and Anni Albers to Corita Kent and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. In remixing these myriad references, Gibson’s work blurs the boundaries between kitsch and fine art, popular culture and avant-garde, uncovering new perspectives on contemporary Indigenous art beyond conventional categories. Always attentive and responsive to place, Gibson’s installation explores Swiss vernacular masking and carnival traditions, Concrete Art, and Zurich’s performative art history, such as Dada.

BOSHULLICHI / INLƲCHI – WE WILL CONTINUE TO CHANGE

The title ‘BOSHULLICHI / INLƲCHI – WE WILL CONTINUE TO CHANGE’ includes two Choctaw words that both mean change. Boshullichi means to break something into pieces, to break something down and to change. Inlʋchi means to make something different, to restore and rebuild something.

These terms provide myriad ways to consider how humans can live with intention and make choices in a rapidly changing and overwhelming world. Change is constant and inevitable, for humans within the natural and built environments. Through his work, Gibson seeks to foster a collective dialogue that invites everyone to the table, contributing to a more humane future rooted in this shared interconnectedness.

ART FOR ALL

Access to the Haefner Foyer and the installation by Jeffrey Gibson is free of charge, delivering on a commitment by the Kunsthaus Zürich for the new Kunsthaus: to create a ‘town square’, where people from all over the city can meet and enjoy art without having to pay – a monumental, colourful environment in which everyone is welcome. The installation is expected to remain on show until the end of 2026.

JEFFREY GIBSON

Jeffrey Gibson (b. 1972, Colorado Springs, CO; lives and works in New York) is an artist, curator and educator. He grew up in major urban centres in the United States, Germany, Korea and the UK. He is a citizen of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent. Gibson earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1995 and his Master of Arts in painting at the Royal College of Art, London, in 1998.

The presentation at the Kunsthaus Zürich was curated by Abigail Winograd, an independent curator and writer currently serving as co-director and chief curator of Pueblo Unido Gallery. She recently commissioned and co-curated Jeffrey Gibson’s exhibition for the 2024 U.S. Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale. Winograd has curated exhibitions around the world, held positions at the Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry, the Smart Museum of Art, Frans Hals Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Blanton Museum of Art, and Art Institute of Chicago, and published extensively.

The presentation of Jeffrey Gibson's work was made possible by a Zurich-based cultural foundation. The activation of the work is supported by contributions from the Gateway Fund, a fund dedicated to supporting public art installations at the Kunsthaus Zürich.