Where are all the Native American artists? Visit any major American museum today, and you may notice some answers to that question. In 2025, we are in the middle of a Native American art renaissance, where institutions nationwide are clamoring to display—and occasionally acquire—contemporary Native artists. This is thanks in no small part to Jeffrey Gibson, a Mississippi Choctaw and Cherokee painter and sculptor, whose seminal 2023 book An Indigenous Present features 60 contemporary Native artists. In a show of the same name, which opened last month at the ICA Boston, 15 of these artists are brought together. Co-curated with independent curator Jenelle Porter, the exhibition ties together broad themes recurring across contemporary Native American art: land, memory, refusal, and humor.
Gibson’s desire to document his fellow Indigenous artists started during graduate school, when he lacked a comprehensive resource on contemporary Native artists. Later, living and working in New York City, he was often the token Indigenous artist in a project or institution. Over the years, Indigenous artists have become increasingly sought-after across North America. For example, painter Kent Monkman currently has a retrospective, “History Is Painted by the Victors,” at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Meanwhile, interdisciplinary artist Marie Watt is presenting the full range of her practice at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Portland, Oregon, from print works to monumental steel-and-wool blanket works that recall Mohawk “sky walkers.”
For Artsy, Gibson selected 10 Indigenous artists you should know this Native American Heritage Month.
Ishi Glinsky
B. 1982, Tucson, Arizona. Lives and works in Los Angeles.
Known for: campy yet staunchly Indigenous painting, drawing, and sculpture
In the honorifically titled painting My Friend Fred (2024)—a colorful portrait of a woven bear sculpture by his friend Fred—Ishi Glinsky plays with scale and medium. He lends texture to the original, which was made of bear grass and deploys a refracted aesthetic to create a vivid realism.
Glinsky is also known for other whimsical works. As Gibson put it: “large resin versions of Native American jewelry that feature animated characters, including Pink Panther, Mickey Mouse, and Tweety, among others.” The artist’s work is purposely excessive and is inspired by Zuni and Diné artists who interpret Disney characters, such as designer Veronica Poblano, who created a Pink Panther bolo tie that inspired Glinsky’s large-scale interpretation called Light Pink Jazz V.P. (2024), rendered in aluminum, resin, pigment, wood, adhesive, and foam. He has also made an oversized leather jacket, Monuments to Survival (2021), embellished with Indigenous motifs, interpreting pop culture and Native design to maintain visual sovereignty while being hailed by the Western viewer.