Boston MA 02210
United States
An Indigenous Present
October 9, 2025 – March 8, 2026
An Indigenous Present is a thematic exhibition spanning 100 years of contemporary Indigenous art. The exhibition includes new commissions and significant works by fifteen artists who use strategies of abstraction to represent personal and collective narratives, describe specific and imagined places, and build upon cultural and aesthetic traditions. Co-organized by artist Jeffrey Gibson and independent curator Jenelle Porter, the exhibition highlights a continuum of elders and emerging makers, and premieres newly commissioned site-specific works by Raven Chacon, Caroline Monnet, and Anna Tsouhlarakis. An Indigenous Present emerges from Gibson and Porter’s 2023 landmark publication of the same title—their engagement with artists during the making of the book inspired the exhibition. After its debut at the ICA/Boston, the exhibition will travel to the Frist Art Museum in Nashville (June 26—September 27, 2026) and the Frye Art Museum in Seattle (November 7, 2026—February 14, 2027). The exhibition is organized by Jeffrey Gibson and Jenelle Porter, guest curators, with Erika Umali, Curator of Collections, and Max Gruber, Curatorial Assistant.
Caroline Monnet: Man-made Land
September 27, 2025 – January 18, 2027
Man-made Land is a site-responsive installation by Algonquin-Anishinaabe and French artist Caroline Monnet for the Sandra and Gerald Fineberg Art Wall to accompany the thematic exhibition An Indigenous Present. Responding to the ICA’s location at the edge of Boston Harbor, Monnet’s installation is plotted with “blooms” that expand fractal-like, symbolizing Boston’s 400-year history of land reclamation. Monnet transforms commercial building materials—like Tyvek, plastic, and foil insulation—into geometric circles and lines abstracted from Anishinaabeg designs found on regalia, birch bark baskets, and beadwork. Man-made Land is a meditation, as she explains, “on the interconnectedness of all living things…a way to transmit cultural knowledge and values across generations, reinforcing a sense of community and belonging.” The presentation is organized by Jeffrey Gibson and Jenelle Porter, guest curators, with Erika Umali, Curator of Collections, and Max Gruber, Curatorial Assistant.
Say It Loud: AAMARP, 1977 to Now
February 12, 2026 – August 2, 2026
Say It Loud: AAMARP, 1977 to Now is dedicated to the African American Master Artists-in-Residence Program (AAMARP). Founded by artist, educator, and activist Dana C. Chandler Jr. at Northeastern University in 1977, AAMARP is the first and only in-residence program for Black artists in the United States. For nearly five decades, AAMARP has stood at the intersection of art, activism, and community. A vital outgrowth of the Black Arts Movement in Boston, AAMARP was envisioned as both an artistic haven and a cultural force—it provided what its founder called a “living focus” on “the diverse dynamics of African American aesthetics.” Today, the program functions as a collective of thirteen intergenerational artists whose works offer a rich and varied reflection of the arts of Africa and its diaspora. This exhibition, and accompanying publication, traces the evolution of AAMARP through the artists’ voices, their engagement with global artistic and political movements, and their deep-rooted sense of community, illuminating a living archive of creative resistance, cultural memory, and Black artistic excellence. The exhibition is organized by Jeffrey De Blois, ICA Mannion Family Curator, with Meghan Clare Considine, ICA Curatorial Assistant, in collaboration with AAMARP’s active members.
