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There’s something especially fitting about the way The Rockwell Museum is marking this moment in time. As the museum celebrates its 50th anniversary and the nation approaches its 250th, its newest exhibition, Native Now: Contemporary Indigenous Art, on view through early May, brings together more than 40 works by over 30 Indigenous artists, drawing largely from The Rockwell’s own collection while incorporating key loans through partnerships like Art Bridges.
The show is organized into three thematic sections: Indigenous Landscapes, Past Tense/Future Present, and Always Becoming, which together offer a loose framework for understanding how contemporary Indigenous artists are engaging with both history and the future. It is a constellation of perspectives, each rooted in lived experience and cultural knowledge.
In Indigenous Landscapes, the relationship between land and identity takes center stage. Artists like Teresa Baker and Emmi Whitehorse explore terrain as something spiritual, political, and deeply personal. Baker’s Yellow Prairie Grass, for example, layers artificial turf with organic and synthetic materials in gradient yellow and orange hues that simultaneously evoke a vibrant sunset and a grassy field.
In Past Tense/Future Present, the exhibition leans into Native Futurism. Here, artists imagine futures shaped by Indigenous resilience and self-determination. Virgil Ortiz blends traditional ceramic techniques with sci-fi aesthetics, creating figures that feel both ancient and speculative.
The final section, Always Becoming, shifts toward vitality and flourishing. Artists including Wendy Red Star and Sarah Sense engage directly with historical narratives, often reworking archival materials to reclaim context and meaning. Red Star’s Catalogue Number 1950.76, for instance, includes reproduced and modified catalogue cards that document historical Crow cultural items.
What makes Native Now particularly compelling is its emphasis on collaboration. The exhibition was co-curated with Randee Spruce, and developed in partnership with the Onöhsagwë:de’ Cultural Center, ensuring that Indigenous perspectives are not just represented, but embedded in the curatorial process itself. It’s a reminder that how these stories are told matters just as much as what is being shown.
More than anything, Native Now resists the tendency to frame Indigenous art as something static or historical. Instead, it insists on presence and the idea that these artists are not only responding to the past, but actively shaping contemporary culture and imagining new futures.
At a time when institutions across the country are reconsidering how they tell American stories, The Rockwell’s approach feels thoughtful and necessary. This isn’t just an exhibition about Indigenous art. It’s an invitation to reconsider whose voices are centered, and how those voices continue to evolve.
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