Jan. 12, 2021
This week’s picks include an artist who melds tradition, craft, and pop culture to create inclusive and uplifting messages; artworks that start on iPhones and end up large scale; and a group show that insists that humans are not the center of the universe.
Jeffrey Gibson, “IT CAN BE SAID OF THEM,” 2020. Glass beads, artificial sinew, acrylic felt, nylon thread, nylon fringe, cotton canvas, wood panel, 50 x 56 x 3.5 inches. Image courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, California.
At Roberts Projects in Culver City, a solo show by Jeffrey Gibson delights in meticulously crafted details. Part Choctaw and part Cherokee, Gibson calls upon craft traditions, like Iroquois beadwork, and infuses them with homages to pop-culture, music, and activism. Across the exhibition, lyrics from Tracy Chapman, Björk, and the Beatles are referenced in Gibson’s titles like “THE LOVE YOU GIVE IS THE LOVE YOU GET,” a meticulously beaded punching page that