Ishi Glinsky
P·P·O·W and Chris Sharp Gallery are pleased to present Inertia – Here and Home, 2026, a new sculpture by Ishi Glinsky (b. 1982) at Art Basel Parcours, which will be installed theatrically in a street-facing window gallery on Clarastrasse. Presenting ambitious projects that explore how we live together, this year’s iteration of Parcours is curated by Stefanie Hessler, Director of Swiss Institute, New York, NY.
Ishi Glinsky
Inertia - Here and Home, 2026
resin, pigment, steel, aluminum, fiberglass, wood, cotton, ink, industrial adhesives
dimensions variable
Born to a mother of German descent and a father from the Tohono O’odham Nation, Glinsky was raised in Tucson, Arizona. Grounding his multidisciplinary practice in an exploration of the traditions of his tribe and its connections to other North American First Nations, Glinsky’s works explore the universal significance of many Indigenous practices. Working across sculpture, painting, and multi-media installation, Glinsky uses unconventional materials to reimagine recognizable forms and Indigenous production methods at monumental scales. Calling to mind the consistent exploitation of Native aesthetics by American cultural industries without credit or compensation, Glinsky subverts this agenda by rematerializing traditional techniques within borrowed-back symbols of American pop culture. Glinsky explored these themes in his iconic installation Inertia – Warn the Animals, 2023, created for the exhibition Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA, before entering the Gochman Family Collection. In his new sculpture, Glinsky combines approaches to fabrication from both the past and present to, in his own words, “capture a shared humanistic, guttural reaction to viewing anthropological masks.” In doing so, he transforms appropriation into reclamation — turning a tool of erasure into a testament of survival.
Ishi Glinsky
Inertia - Here and Home (detail), 2026
resin, pigment, steel, aluminum, fiberglass, wood, cotton, ink, industrial adhesives
dimensions variable
Across the globe, masks have long served as foundational representations of their culture of origin, concurrently functioning within the realms of sacred, utilitarian, and theatrical use. In Inertia – Here and Home, Glinsky investigates the conditional traits of cultural masks, a universally significant form of regalia often intended by their wearers to disarm and shock, or as a means of identification. The type of headdress referenced by this work would traditionally have been worn by a dancer in the powwow circuit, while simultaneously serving as a way of sharing ideas intertribally. Through this twist on Jason Voorhees’ mask from the Friday the 13th horror movie franchise, Glinsky forms a hybrid visual narrative that recontextualizes the public's response to staple Hollywood imagery while reclaiming the cultural history of the Tohono O'odham tribe.
Now residing in Los Angeles, California, Glinsky often alludes to the city’s film industry to subvert its complicated histories surrounding Native peoples and their practices. In this sculpture, Glinsky replaces the austere white face of Jason’s hockey mask with a vibrant mosaic made of poured resin tiles, transforming a symbol of American cinema into a living archive of Indigenous knowledge. Mimicking the varied greens of turquoise found in the American Southwest, he incorporates a technique used in shell overlays from the Hohokam People (predecessors to Tohono O’odham) to create the work’s elaborate surface. An extravagant display of feathers extends from the top of the headdress, furthering its dramatic impact while channeling the excitement and spectacle associated with donning regalia for a powwow or other ceremonial purposes. Individually making each feather using a combination of hand-poured, pigmented resin, fiberglass and aluminum screens, and bailing wire used in O’odham wire baskets originating from the late 1800s, Glinsky gives the sculpture the same care and respect given to the headpiece he made to dance with when he was a teenager. By rendering the mask at a colossal scale, Glinsky ignites the viewer’s sense that they are experiencing or witnessing a ritual act. While the first impression may be startling, further observation reveals compelling details that speak to the personal and symbolic narratives embedded within.
Ishi Glinsky, 2023. Photo: Ruben Diaz.
Ishi Glinsky has presented solo exhibitions at P·P·O·W, New York, NY; Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Visions West, Denver, CO; These Days, Los Angeles, CA; Open Studio, Tokyo, Japan; Four Corners Gallery at Tucson Desert Art Museum, Tucson, AZ; and more. In 2022, Glinsky presented his first institutional survey, Upon A Jagged Maze, curated by Gabriel Ritter, at the Art, Design & Architecture Museum at UC Santa Barbara, CA. His work was on view in Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination since 1969, Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-On-Hudson, NY; Made in LA, 2023: Acts of Living, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; and Smoke in Our Hair: Native Memory and Unsettled Time, Hudson River Museum, New York, NY; among others. Glinsky’s work is a part of the public collections of the AD&A Museum UC Santa Barbara, CA; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; California Natural Resources Agency Public Artwork, Sacramento, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; and Art in Embassies: U.S. Department of State, Nogales, AZ. His first solo exhibition with P·P·O·W, Duration of Being Known, was on view in Fall 2024. P·P·O·W and Chris Sharp Gallery will present his work in Art Basel’s 2026 edition of Parcours, curated by Stefanie Hessler. Opening this August, his work will be featured in the group exhibition Brutal Beauty at Mesa Contemporary Arts Center, Mesa, AZ.