The Native Artists Dominating Museum Presentations in 2024

Artnet surveyed special exhibitions currently on view at more than 200 U.S. art museums producing a list of the contemporary artists most in fashion nationwide. At institutions, anyway. The rankings do not consider galleries or the secondary market.

The highly respected art world publication found nearly 3,500 names appearing in solo and group shows at big and small museums from coast to coast, with just over 300 – less than 10% –appearing more than once. The individual artists appearing multiple times was, of course, even smaller.

For the numerical ranking, career retrospectives and surveys were weighted mostly highly, “followed by special commissions or exhibitions that spotlight a specific body of work, biennial appearances, and then inclusions in thematic group shows.”

For December 2024, every one of the top six most highly represented artists at U.S. museums were either Black or Indigenous. After 100-plus years of marginalizing minority artists, in respect to exhibitions, museums are making up for lost ground. Their collection practices – the artwork they buy – continues to over index white, male artists working out of the European tradition, but for special exhibitions, institutions are leading the way in terms of minority representation.

Three of the top six artists with the highest degree of current museum attention were Native American, and each of them comes from a Western tribe: Juane Quick-to-See Smith, Virgil Ortiz, Rose B. Simpson.

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith 'State Names Map Cahokia,' from collection of the Saint Louis Art Museum.

Smith (b. 1940; citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation) had the biggest museum year ever for a Native American in 2023 with her historic retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the first such presentation for an Indigenous artist organized by the nation’s premier museum dedicated exclusively to American art.

“Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map” opened at the Whitney on April 19, 2023, as the most significant solo exhibition for a Native American artist ever. The prestige of the museum, the scale of the show, and its location in New York, were all unrivaled in stature.

On top of that, she curated “The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans,” a major exhibition at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. highlighting artworks by some 50 living Native artists.

Smith is the most significant and influential contemporary Native artist. Period.

Despite being on the other side of 80, it’s good to see she hasn’t slowed down in 2024.

Like Smith, Ortiz (b. 1969; Cochiti Pueblo) had a monster museum year in 2023. He was everywhere.

Virgil Ortiz with a figure from his 'Pueblo Revolt' series. Courtesy of the artist.

I consider 2023 the year contemporary Native American art finally entered the broader contemporary art mainstream. The best year ever for Indigenous artists in U.S. museums. That followed 2022 which was a breakout year for contemporary Native photography.

2024 was right there with them, and if these rankings were given in the spring or summer, Simpson (b. 1983; Santa Clara Pueblo) might have topped them. No artist had a bigger first half of 2024 in museums than she did.

Three artists, three separate generations. The pipeline of brilliant contemporary Native artists is gushing.

The plaudits don’t stop there for Native artists with Western roots. Narrowly missing the top six for December 2024 was Jeffrey Gibson (b. 1972; member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent), who was born in Colorado and spent formative time in Oklahoma as a child. He represented the United States at a little event called the Venice Biennale in 2024, the most prestigious exhibition of contemporary art in the world. He was the first Native American artist to represent the nation there with a solo show.

Rose Simpson with her 'Counterculture' installation in Massachusetts. Photo by Stephanie Zollshan.

When Artnet first produced this report in September, Portland-based Marie Watt (b. 1967; Seneca) topped the rankings. Numero uno!

Smith and Dyani White Hawk (b. 1976; Sičáŋǧu Lakota) were just outside the top five in September.

Add to this an announcement from the National Gallery in December of 2024 that it had acquired paintings, sculptures, a video, and several photographs by contemporary Native American artists Gibson, Sky Hopinka (b. 1984; Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians), Cannupa Hanska Luger (b. 1979; Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara/Lakota), Dakota Mace (b. 1991; Diné), Eric-Paul Riege (b. 1994; Dine), Cara Romero (b. 1977; Chemehuevi), Kay WalkingStick (b. 1935; Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma), and Will Wilson (Diné; 1969).

Looking at that group makes clear its high time the National Gallery started looking as much to eastern and southern Native American artists for its collection as it does Western Native artists.

It’s extraordinary progress, none the less. Mind you, Smith became the first Native American artist to have a painting acquired by the National Gallery in 2020. 2020! As in four years ago 2020. The National Gallery of Art for the United States of America did not deign to acquire a piece of Native American painting until 2020. The museum was established in 1937.

Having finally broken through, contemporary Indigenous artists are sustaining their museum momentum in 2025 with prominent presentations. A sampling early in the year includes the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire debuting the first major solo museum exhibition for Romero in January. Also in January, The Block Museum at Northwestern University in Chicago celebrates the region’s Indigenous creativity with a major exhibition, “Woven Being: Art for Zhegagoynak/Chicagoland.” In February, a survey of contemporary Native American art, unprecedented in size, curated by Smith opens at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University—New Brunswick, NJ. In April, the Denver Art Museum will present the first major survey in the U.S. for Kent Monkman (b. 1965; Fisher River Cree Nation).  

Indigenous contemporary art is not going back.