Zhegagoynak, the place now known as Chicagoland, is a vital center for Indigenous art, past and present. This winter, the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University is celebrating the region’s Indigenous creativity with a major exhibition, Woven Being: Art for Zhegagoynak/Chicagoland, now on view until July 13.
Through the collaboration of four artists with connections to Zhegagoynak — Andrea Carlson (Grand Portage Ojibwe/European descent), Kelly Church (Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Tribe of Pottawatomi/Ottawa), Nora Moore Lloyd (Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe), and Jason Wesaw (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi) — Woven Being explores confluences that continue to shape Indigenous creative practices in the region and beyond.
“How does one’s understanding of Chicago change when seen through Indigenous perspectives?” asks Jordan Poorman Cocker (Kiowa), Terra Foundation guest co-curator of the show. “This exhibition helps shift views about the place Chicagoans call home by revealing Indigenous stories that have been erased or omitted from mainstream narratives.”
More than five years in the planning, Woven Being is the result of an ongoing dialogue among Carlson, Church, Lloyd, Wesaw, exhibition curators, and staff at the Block Museum of Art. It presents more than 80 artworks by 33 artists active from the mid-20th century to today and includes multiple newly commissioned works.
This artist-centered approach resulted in an exhibition where artists shaped the context for their work amid works by other artists of their choosing. Together, the pieces highlight the shared aesthetics, materials, values, communities, and kinship of these interconnected artists. Themes of land and waterways, kinship with plants and animals, and Indigenous concepts of time likewise connect the show’s artworks and stories.
In addition to the four collaborators, artists whose work is on view include Josef Albers, Rick Bartow, Frank Big Bear, Roy Boney, Avis Charley, Woodrow Wilson Crumbo, Nancy Fisher Cyrette, Jim Denomie, Jeffrey Gibson, Teri Greeves, Denise Lajimodiere, Mark LaRoque, Courtney M. Leonard, Agnes Martin, Wanesia Misquadace, George Morrison, Barnett Newman, Daphne Odjig, Virgil Ortiz, Chris Pappan, Cherish Parrish, John Pigeon, Jason Quigno, Monica Rickert-Bolter, Sharon Skolnick, Skye Tafoya, Lisa Telford, Joe Yazzie, and Debra Yepa-Pappan.
To learn more, visit blockmuseum.northwestern.edu.
Woven Being is part of the Terra Foundation’s citywide Art Design Chicago. Lead support is generously provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Major support is provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Joyce Foundation, and by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council.
Indigenous artists offer perspectives on the art of Chicagoland in this new exhibition at The Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University.
