We’ve Been Gathering Places
form & concept | March 2024
We’ve Been Gathering Places is a culmination of two years of rigorous studies by the 2024 graduating cohort of the Masters in Studio Arts program at Institute of American Indian Arts. Comprised of suspended installations, large-scale wall sculptures, paintings, photographs, multichannel new media works, and interactive displays, We've Been Gathering Places transforms form & concept's 10,000 square-foot exhibition space into eight discrete articulations of lived experience.
“There are references to places in the exhibition—a hogan, iconic earthworks, specific landforms,” says Mario Caro, IAIA Director of MFA in Studio Arts. “But the students are also identifying their cohort and themselves as gathering places—for ideas, experiences and histories that flow out into discrete material vessels and sprawling installations."
My contributions: Curatorial with Mario Caro. As my final curatorial effort at form & concept, this exhibition opened after my departure for a role at Southwest Contemporary, but I worked extensively on the layout and my written contributions appeared throughout the show.
Artwork: Mekko Harjo (featured and top image), Joely BigEagle-Kequahtooway, Daisy Trudell-Mills, Leah Mata, Graci Horne
Photography: Byron Flesher & Marylene Mey