Indigenous Artists offer perspectives on the art of Chicagoland at Northwestern’s Block Museum

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By The Block Museum of Art

January 31, 2025

Exhibition Woven Being: Art for Zhegagoynak / Chicagoland to run through July 13, 2025

Zhegagoynak, the place now known as Chicagoland, has long been a vital center for Indigenous art. This winter, The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University celebrates the region’s Indigenous creativity with a major exhibition, Woven Being: Art for  Zhegagoynak/Chicagoland (January 25-July 13, 2025). 

Through the collaboration of four artists with connections to Zhegagoynak— Carlson (Grand Portage Ojibwe/European descent), Kelly Church (Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Tribe of Pottawatomi/Ottawa), Nora Moore Lloyd (Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe), and Jason Wesaw (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi) —Woven Being explores confluences that continue to shape Indigenous creative practices in the region and beyond. 

Chicagoland is the traditional homeland of the people of the Council of Three Fires— the Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa—as well as the Menominee, Miami, Ho-Chunk, Sac, Fox, Kickapoo, and Illinois nations. It has been a longstanding cultural and economic hub for Indigenous peoples and continues to be today. People from many Indigenous nations call the region home, and the city of Chicago has the third-largest urban Indigenous population in the United States. 

The richness of Indigenous experiences and contributions are often excluded from Chicago's art histories. Woven Being counters this by centering the ideas, choices, and voices of Indigenous artists. “We were interested in exploring the question: How does our understanding of Chicago change when seen through Indigenous perspectives? This exhibition helps shift views about the place Chicagoans call home by revealing Indigenous stories that have been erased or omitted from mainstream narratives,” said Jordan Poorman Cocker (Kiowa), Terra Foundation Guest Co-Curator of the exhibition and Curator of Indigenous Art at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. 

The exhibition presents more than 80 artworks by 33 artists active from the mid-20th century to today and includes multiple newly commissioned works. “Just as a black ash basket is given form through the interweaving of many splints, Woven Being was developed through an in-depth collaboration with and between these artists and The Block’s project team,” says Cocker. 

This artist-centered approach has resulted in a distinctive exhibition where the artists have shaped a context for their work amid works by other artists of their choosing. “The assignment for us, the organizing artists, was to choose art and artists who've inspired our own works. The resulting exhibition locates our chosen artists and artworks as a network of influence that happens to culminate in and around Chicago. Woven Being has tangents, unexpected artists who aren't even Native, and diverse materiality and forms because artists cast a wide net when it comes to where we draw inspiration,” notes artist Andrea Carlson.

Together, the artworks highlight the shared aesthetics, materials, values, communities, and kinship of the interconnected artists.  The themes of land and waterways, kinship with plants and animals, and Indigenous concepts of time likewise connect the exhibition’s artworks and stories. “These perspectives are central to understanding Chicago’s specific cultural landscape. While our focus is on Indigenous artists here, we are also recognizing how they are interconnected with art and artists across the entirety of North America. Woven Being is just one of many stories that could be told about Indigenous art in the Chicagoland region. We want people to walk away recognizing that there’s a lot more to experience and many ways to do that,” added Kathleen Bickford Berzock, exhibition co-curator and Block Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs. 

The exhibition is crafted to welcome all visitors while acknowledging that everyone will enter with their own backgrounds and ways of seeing and understanding. “The artists and exhibition team have been thoughtful about framing Woven Being as a gift: art for Zhegagoynak,” said Janet Dees, Woven Being co-curator and former Steven and Lisa Munster Tananbaum Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Block. “ The selected art is a gift to the land and to our audiences, reflecting the concept of reciprocity that is central to many Indigenous communities.”

Collaborations and Constellations

Over five years in the planning, Woven Being is rooted in the ongoing dialogue between Carlson, Church, Lloyd, Wesaw, exhibition curators, and The Block’s staff. “I was impressed by The Block’s willingness to create space for curating Indigenous art from a different lens, as well as its openness to collaborative models,” notes Jordan Poorman Cocker.  

The exhibition’s collaborating artists have close ties to Chicago, whether because they have lived in the city or they are from nations forcibly displaced from the area in the nineteenth century. “Chicago is like a center of Indigenous world trade in many ways, both historically and in modern times,” says artist Jason Wesaw. “Our stories are really powerful, and I’m hopeful that people will begin to see and place us in these conversations where we’ve often been invisible.” 

Collaborating artists include:

Andrea Carlson (Grand Portage Ojibwe/European descent, born 1979) works in drawing, painting, print, sculpture, and video to create vividly intricate imagery that maps the mosaic entanglements of cultural narratives and institutional authority. Her current research involves land narratives, decolonization, Indigenous futurisms, and assimilation metaphors in film. 

 Kelly Church (Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Tribe of Pottawatomi/Ottawa, born 1967) is a fifth-generation black ash basket maker, as well as a fiber artist, educator, activist, and culture keeper. She learned black ash basketry from her father, Bill Church, and cousin, John Pigeon. 

Nora Moore Lloyd (Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, born 1947) was trained as a photographer and videographer. She works in multiple mediums to create artworks that document the stories of Indigenous elders and to connect with cultural practices related to harvesting birch bark and wild rice. Nora has been an active member of Chicago’s Native American community for decades.

Jason Wesaw (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, born 1974) works in an array of media including ceramics, drawings, and textiles to create abstract works that are informed by the land and relate stories that are rooted in place and the acknowledgment of spirit. He serves as a peacemaker in his community.

The exhibition’s content builds from “constellations” created by the collaborating artists, consisting of their own artwork and historical and contemporary artworks with which they have an affinity. Collectively, Carlson, Church, Lloyd, and Wesaw have placed their work alongside that of  29 primarily Indigenous artists, weaving overlapping stories through dialogue and collaboration.  

In addition to the collaborating artists, exhibited artists include Josef Albers, Rick Bartow, Frank Big Bear, Roy Boney, Avis Charley, Woodrow Wilson Crumbo, Nancy Fisher Cyrette,  Jim Denomie, Jeffrey Gibson,  Teri Greeves, Denise Lajimodiere, Mark LaRoque, Courtney M. Leonard, Agnes Martin, Wanesia Misquadace,  George Morrison,  Barnett Newman, Daphne Odjig, Virgil Ortiz,  Chris Pappan, Cherish Parrish, John Pigeon,  Jason Quigno, Monica Rickert-Bolter, Sharon Skolnick, Skye Tafoya, Lisa Telford, Joe Yazzie, and Debra Yepa-Pappan.

Exhibition Highlights

Woven Being embraces joy, hope, resilience, and the importance of remembering difficult histories. The exhibition highlights intergenerational learning and dialogue, Indigenous languages, and sensory elements including the scent of sweetgrass and the sounds of ricing, pounding black ash bark, and of song.  “From the beginning, we worked together to envision the exhibition as a constellation of stories that included many voices—a space where artworks are grouped in ways that reveal connections and invite discovery. Together, we have worked on an exhibition design that felt welcoming, layered, and alive,” says Dan Silverstein, Associate Director of Exhibitions and Collections and member of the Woven Being planning team.

 The exhibition includes the first large-scale installation by artist Kelly Church, a woven sheltering circle of braided sweetgrass titled Honoring Our Children: Never Forgotten, 2024. Church notes, “Being able to create with the same teachings and materials as my ancestors gives me a connection to my relatives and weaves together our experiences and our voices of the past and present.” 

Other exhibition highlights:

Teri Greeves’ My Family’s Tennis  Shoes features intricately beaded tennis shoes that pay homage to the artist's mother and the matrilineal heritage passed through generations. Greeves’ work transforms everyday footwear into a symbol of cultural pride and personal history, blending contemporary items with traditional artistry to reflect resilience and identity in modern Indigenous life. 

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Kelly Church’s We Must Remember Where We Come From,  an intricately woven  basket made with splints from the endangered black ash tree, threatened by the invasive emerald ash borer. The basket contains a vial with a single black ash seed, representing preservation and cultural continuity

Chris Pappan’s Howageji Nizhuje Akipé (Where the Rivers Meet) utilizes the iconic “Y” shape of the Chicago River to layer distorted portraits, examining the transformation of the region and Indigenous displacement. 

Nora Moore Lloyd’s Treaty with the Chippewa reproduces the 1833 Treaty of Chicago, overlaying the treaty’s text onto an image of birch bark. The work speaks to the history of forced removals of Indigenous people, including Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi , from Zhegagoynak and its region, providing a poignant visual narrative of endurance.

Cherish Parrish’s The Last Rose, a black ash basket in the form of a jingle dancer, celebrates the jingle dance tradition as a symbol of healing and resistance. With its finely woven details, the piece emphasizes both the cultural significance and resilience of Indigenous communities. 

Frank Big Bear’s The Walker Collage, Multiverse #10, a monumental work comprising 432 individual panels. Each panel is crafted on an invitation card from an exhibition by his son, Star Wallowing Bull, symbolizing the intergenerational transmission of artistic expression. This expansive collage interweaves personal and cultural narratives.

Daphne Odjig’s Entrance to the Lodge, foregrounds Odjig’s legacy as a pioneering Indigenous modernist and Potawatomi artist. This work captures Odjig’s unique approach to Indigenous narratives through modernist abstraction and is a testament to her influential role in Indigenous art history.

Woven Being: Exhibition Publication 

The Block Museum is publishing an accompanying book that will be distributed by the University of Washington Press. The 160-page multi-authored publication centers Indigenous voices and explores the exhibition’s expansive themes and questions. Forthcoming in Spring 2025, the book will be available midway through the exhibition run to document the installation and represent the constellations of artwork on view in the galleries. (Preorder now)

Following an introduction by the exhibition’s co-curators, contributors Blaire Morseau (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi), Denise Lajimodiere (Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe), John Low (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi), Anne Terry Straus and Jacqueline Lopez expand on the collaborating artists’ contributions from their own disciplinary and personal vantage points, also highlighting works by the twenty-nine additional artists included in the exhibition.  These chapters are interspersed with poetry and prose , including by Heid Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe), Mark LaRoque (White Earth Ojibwe), and Mark Turcotte (Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe), a resource guide focusing on Chicago’s Indigenous-led arts organizations, and installation views of the exhibition.  

The Woven Being publication is produced by Marquand Books, Seattle, and designed by OTAMI, Montreal.

Opening Celebration – Saturday, February 1

Woven’s Being’s kickoff event will be held on Saturday, February 1.  The day will include open galleries, hands-on activities, a Community Room welcome, and a 2PM keynote panel conversation with the collaborating artists and co-curator Jordan Poorman Cocker. (RSVP) A free public reception will follow the opening program at 3:30 PM.  

The 2PM keynote conversation will be held in Northwestern’s Galvin Recital hall, overlooking Lake Michigan, and will celebrate the work of Andrea Carlson, Kelly Church, Nora Moore Lloyd, and Jason Wesaw. The artists will address the questions the exhibition raises about Zhegagoynak's histories, present experiences, and futures. 

The opening event marks the first of a series of talks and tours throughout the exhibition’s run. (View Exhibition Events) “Programming for the exhibition will center dialogue and Indigenous perspectives, intergenerational teaching and learning, and celebrate the joy, resilience and creativity of Indigenous artists across disciplines.” notes Erin Northington, Susan and Stephen Wilson Associate Director, Campus and Community Education and Engagement.

Also on View: Jordan Ann Craig’s first solo Chicago exhibition

Opening concurrently with Woven Being, The Block will present  It takes a long time to stay here: Paintings by Jordan Ann Craig (January 25- April 13, 2025) the first solo Chicago exhibition by Jordan Ann Craig.

Jordan Ann Craig (b. 1992 San Jose, CA) is a Northern Cheyenne artist living and working in Pojoaque Valley, New Mexico.  Craig is known for large-scale paintings, prints, and painting-inspired installations. Her work develops out of an engagement with abstraction rooted in Northern Cheyenne and other Indigenous aesthetic traditions and a dynamic and innovative exploration of color, line, and form. 

Community Welcome and a City-Wide Celebration

The Woven Being exhibition includes a Community Room designed to center Indigenous community and is open to all. This space is dedicated to conversation, reflection, laughter, and learning and will include hosted drop-in hours with conversations and activities related to the themes of the exhibition.  

Woven Being is part of Art Design Chicago, a citywide collaboration initiated by the Terra Foundation for American Art that highlights the city’s artistic heritage and creative communities. Including more than 75 cultural partners and 35 exhibitions across the city Art Design Chicago seeks to expand narratives of American art with an emphasis on Chicago’s diverse and vibrant creative cultures and the stories they tell. Woven Being is one of a number of Art Design Chicago exhibitions showcasing the breadth and depth of the work of Indigenous artists with ties to the regio

“We are deeply grateful to our foundation partners, particularly the Terra Foundation, whose support enabled The Block to embark on an extended period of learning and discovery in the planning of Woven Being. This support allowed us to embrace Indigenous methods of exhibition building—prioritizing collaboration, dialogue, and centering relationships. While we couldn’t foresee where these conversations would take us, we were profoundly moved by the journey, building connections, working styles, and partnerships that will be an essential part of our future,” said Lisa Graziose Corrin, The Block’s Ellen Philips Katz Executive Director

Exhibition Credits

Lead support for Woven Being is generously provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Major support is provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Joyce Foundation, and by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council. Additional generous support is provided by the Sandra L. Riggs Publication Fund and the Alumnae of Northwestern University.

Woven Being project development is led by a collaborative team:

• Kathleen Bickford Berzock, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs
• Jordan Poorman Cocker (Kiowa), Curator of Indigenous Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and Terra Foundation Guest Co-Curator
• Janet Dees, former Block Museum Steven and Lisa Munster Tananbaum Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art
• Erin Northington, Susan and Stephen Wilson Associate Director, Campus and Community Education and Engagement
• Dan Silverstein, Associate Director of Collections and Exhibition Management. 

The project Terra Foundation Fellows are Marisa Cruz Branco (Isleta Pueblo/Portuguese) and Teagan Harris (Cherokee Nation). The Block is grateful for the participation of the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research and its affiliates. For more information about Native American and Indigenous research at Northwestern University visit Center for Native American and Indigenous Research (CNAIR)

Note: We have used the preferred spelling provided by the artist for the names of Indigenous nations.  

Exhibition Details:

Dates: January 25, 2025 – July 13, 2025

Location: The Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University

Address: 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, IL 60208

Museum Hours: Wed-Friday 12P –8PM, Sat & Sun 12PM–5PM Closed Mon & Tues

Admission: Free and open to the public

Keynote Event: Opening Celebration – Woven Being, February 1, 2PM (FREE and open to all) RSVP

About The Block Museum of Art:
 Free and open to all, The Block is Northwestern University’s art museum. The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University is an engine that drives questioning, experimentation, and collaboration across fields of study, with visual arts at the center. We do this by activating art’s power as a form of insight, research, and knowledge creation that makes human experience visible and material. Fueled by diverse perspectives and ways of knowing, we create shared encounters with art and with one another to deepen understandings of the world and our place within it.