Jeffrey Gibson Will Deliver National Gallery 2025 Annual Lecture

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On 12 November, Jeffrey Gibson will present the National Gallery's 2025 Annual Lecture, an event in which leading art world thinkers are invited to present new ideas in the field of art and art history. Gibson will be in Kamberri/Canberra to deliver the free lecture online and onsite, as he takes part in the American Friends of the National Gallery of Australia: Visiting Creatives Program, following inaugural recipient Jeff Koons.

Gibson is celebrated for his interdisciplinary practice that weaves together Native American and Western traditions, opening new pathways for abstraction, text and colour.  His lecture coincides with the National Gallery's acquisition of Gibson's sculpture Untitled figure 2 2022. With its thousands of plastic bone pipe beads affixed to a steel armature, Untitled figure 2 recalls regalia worn by dancers channeling a spirit or Ancestor: were it able to be worn or activated, the fringe of the hood, as well as the shoulders, hands and feet, would effectively convey a dancer's movement. 

Gibson, a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, lives and works in New York's Hudson Valley. His work fuses his Indigenous heritage and experience of living in Europe, Asia and across the United States with references that span club culture, queer theory, fashion, politics, literature and art history. 

Australian audiences will learn about Gibson's artistic practice, which often platforms other First Nations artists, as well as his work as a curator and convener who is focused on expanding the vocabulary used to describe contemporary First Nations art.

The AFNGA Visiting Creatives Program builds on four decades of close cultural ties between the National Gallery and the United States of America and is designed to deepen the transformational impact of cross-cultural exchange between the two countries. The program is funded by AFNGA through the generous support of the Pratt Foundation and brings influential American arts practitioners to Australia to engage with the national collection and the broader arts community. 

Jeffrey Gibson: ‘Art is a tool to imagine other possibilities and give those possibilities form through movement, image, colour, sound and voice. Artworks can bring people together in a shared vision, both consciously and subconsciously. When we are united, we gain a collective power that can leverage agency in some of the relationships that seem beyond our control as individuals.'

First presented in 1983, the Annual Lecture supports the National Gallery's mission to lead the national cultural agenda through art. For over 40 years, the Annual Lecture has brought some of the world's most significant industry figures to present their ideas to the Australian public. Other US-based artists to present the lecture have included contemporary artist Kara Walker in 2022 and James Turrell in 2005. This year's lecture is made possible through the continued generosity of the National Gallery's corporate partner Pallion.   

Dr Nick Mitzevich, Director, National Gallery: ‘It is an honour to welcome Jeffrey Gibson to present the forthcoming 2025 Annual Lecture, thanks to the support of the Pallion and the AFNGA: Visting Creatives Program. With his work recently acquired for the national collection, it is with great pleasure we can provide this opportunity for Australian audiences to hear directly from Gibson on his life and art.'

Jeffrey Gibson's Untitled figure 2 is now on display in International Art on Level 1 at the National Gallery, Kamberri/Canberra.

Bookings not required, but capacity is limited.  Register here to receive the online link on the day of the event.