In Residence: Jeffrey Gibson

Hauser & Wirth Somerset is delighted to welcome Jeffrey Gibson as our artist-in-residence in August.

Over the past three decades, Gibson has developed a rich interdisciplinary practice that draws from American, Indigenous and queer histories as well as references to popular music, literature and art historical narratives. The artist’s distinctive visual language embraces a broad spectrum of cultural expressions and collaged identities in a way that is simultaneously intimate and radically expansive.

Gibson grew up in major urban centers in the United States, Germany and Korea, where he absorbed the transgressive soundtrack of the 1980s through limited access to MTV. He graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago IL in 1995 and received a Master of Arts in painting at the Royal College of Art, London, in 1998. While in Chicago, he worked as a research assistant on the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) for the Field Museum, a formative experience that fostered an ongoing interest in questions of ownership and notions of cultural translation. Though trained as a painter, Gibson began incorporating materials and techniques that deliberately reference his heritage—such as raw hides and bead work—around 2010. A major turning point in his career, in 2012, he presented ‘one becomes the other,’ his first solo exhibition of sculpture and video, at Participant Inc, New York NY.

Sculpture, moving image and sound have since become an integral aspect of his practice. He is known for his immersive, multi-sensory installations that invoke and interweave such disparate contexts as faith-based spaces of communion and night clubs.

Gibson was the sixth artist selected for the 2025 Genesis Facade Commission for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York NY, and has created four works, ‘The Animal That Therefore I Am,’ for the museum’s historic exterior that are on view from 12 September 2025 – 9 June 2026. Other current and forthcoming solo projects include an immersive installation at MASS MoCA in North Adams MA, until August 2026; and an installation at Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland, through December 2026, which marks Gibson’s first presentation in a European museum following his solo exhibition, ‘the space in which to place me,’ for the US Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition—La Biennale di Venezia in Italy from 20 April through 24 November 2024.

Gibson’s signature brightly colored flags, which were first presented as part of his 2024 exhibition for the US Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale, are currently on display in front of Durslade Farmhouse in Somerset as part of our summer 2026 outdoor sculpture presentation. Each flag features a different pattern, text, lyric, or slogan that draws on American history, queer rights, and Indigenous perspectives. Originally, the eight flags were arranged around the pavilion’ s exterior facade, disrupting its traditional architecture with a powerful and joyous presence. A member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, and of Cherokee descent, Gibson’s multidimensional practice emphasizes collaboration and forges new platforms for Indigenous voices and makers.