Jeffrey Gibson delivered the 35th installment of the Fingerman Lecture series at the Des Moines Art Center on September 25, 2025.
Gibson is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and convener celebrated for his painting, installation, video, and performance work. For over two decades, he has explored how language, pattern, and music construct meaning, synthesizing Indigenous and Western traditions through vibrant color, complex patterning, and layered sound.
A member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, Gibson represented the U.S. at the 2024 Venice Biennale with his acclaimed exhibition “the space in which to place me,” which debuted in the U.S. at The Broad in Los Angeles in May 2025. In June 2025, he unveiled a site-specific installation at Kunsthaus Zurich. He was also selected for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2025 Genesis Facade Commission. His work is held in major collections including MoMA, the Whitney Museum, and the National Gallery of Art. He lives in New York’s Hudson Valley and is currently an artist-in-residence at Bard College.
The Fingerman Lecture series is made possible through generous gifts by Lois and the late Dr. Louis Fingerman
