What struck me first about this yr’s Pictures Present, working by April 27 on the Park Avenue Armory, was the near-total absence of conventional photojournalism. With out the deluge of protest imagery or the urgency of disaster pictures I’ve grown accustomed to whereas doom-scrolling social media, I nervous the honest may be edgeless; rehashing the archive and bygone struggles moderately than the current second. Nonetheless, as I made my manner throughout the maze of 64 exhibitors hosted by the Affiliation of Worldwide Pictures Artwork Sellers (AIPAD), what most stood out to me was the prevalence of modern Indigenous artists channeling political urgency into private explorations, embracing honest introspection alongside an unexpectedly recent (and sometimes gallows) humorousness.
On the sales space of Toronto’s Stephen Bulger Gallery, a targeted solo survey traces over 4 a long time of labor by multimedia artist Shelley Niro (Bay of Quinte Mohawk, Turtle Clan), whose follow is deeply rooted in her Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) heritage. Niro’s work shifts fluidly between sharp cultural critique and intimate reflection, usually laced with irreverence.
“I think just making art as an Indigenous woman is political,” Niro informed me on the honest. “It doesn’t matter what you do [or] what you put out there. I could be making paintings of wooden spoons and people would see it as political.”
Shelley Niro, element from “Untitled” (1991) (left) and “Pandemic Moon (Post-Industrial/Pre-Colonized)” (2023) in collaboration with Barr Gilmore (proper)
Three giant photograph collages from her Portraits sequence (1991-present) provide a uncommon glimpse into the on a regular basis experiences of Indigenous folks. Initiated amid the turbulence of the Kanesatake Resistance, or Oka Disaster — a 78-day standoff between the Canadian authorities and Mohawk land defenders over sacred, disputed territory — the works mirror Niro’s private response to public unrest. Whereas media protection on the time targeted on battle, her first piece from the sequence, “Untitled” (1991), captures what she described to me as “a celebration of life.” The collage paperwork a powwow scene, along with her two sisters smiling defiantly. Organized like a web page from a household scrapbook, the work underscores group, resilience, and pleasure within the face of hostility.
Kitty-corner from this sales space, extra of Niro’s works are being proven by Andrew Smith Gallery in Tucson alongside the work of one other intelligent cultural commentator, Zig Jackson (Mandan-Hidatsa-Arikara), who mixes performative portraiture and documentary pictures to problem stereotypes of Indigenous folks and their erasure from fashionable society.
“His work is about making you aware that the Indigenous population is everywhere,” mentioned gallerist Andrew Smith. “In urban areas, you may not notice them, but they are there.”
Zig Jackson, “Indian Man In San Francisco Series: Indian Man On Bus” (1994) (© 2025 Zig Jackson / ArtistsRights Society (ARS), New York)
Born right into a army household on a North Dakota reservation, Jackson sincerely honors Indigenous veterans and their households in his ongoing Tribal Veterans sequence (c. 1994–current), reframing the warrior not as a relic of the previous however as an emblem of up to date Indigenous identification and patriotism.
In a extra satirical vein, Jackson’s 1991–92 sequence Indian Photographing Vacationer Photographing Indian turns the digital camera — actually and conceptually — on the colonial gaze, parodying the objectification of Indigenous folks by treating vacationers’ voyeurism as spectacle. One photograph on show on the honest, depicting crouching white vacationers thrusting their cameras into the faces of Indigenous people in ceremonial gown, is audacious — I truly laughed out loud with second-hand embarrassment — but the sequence by no means feels mean-spirited or damning. Anybody who has watched a road photographer chase a wannabe influencer in SoHo acknowledges the inherent voyeurism of the photographic medium, and Jackson’s exploration feels too meta to be learn as a (actually) black-and-white condemnation of the pastime.
Works by Douglas Miles offered by Obscura Gallery
Within the again nook of the sales space of Santa Fe’s Obscura Gallery, Douglas Miles (Apache-Akimel O’odham) shows intimate-scaled, black-and-white digital collages that embrace irony and meme tradition. Juxtapositions of pixelated discovered pictures scoured from the web are overlaid with imagery of up to date Apache skate boarders and group members. In a photograph from the Res Skate Demo sequence (2024), a baseball-capped skateboarder kickflips over a crowd of Nineteenth-century Apache people seated beside a practice, whereas gun-toting troopers look on. The crafted scene feels as if the troopers are casually leaning on the fence close to the skaters at Tompkins Sq. Park over breakfast sandwiches, moderately than overseeing the doubtless compelled transportation of individuals. Is that this comparability darkish? Sure. Is it additionally weirdly humorous? Sure.
Eugene Tapahe together with his works on view on the sales space of Monroe Gallery of Pictures
Images by Eugene Tapahe on the sales space of Monroe Gallery of Pictures
On the sales space of Scheinbaum Russek Gallery in Santa Fe, Cara Romero (Chemehuevi) showcases vibrant, theatrical digital portraiture, mixing Indigenous futurism and humor. Romero’s “The Zenith” (2022) surrounds Mvskoke Creek artist George Alexander with floating white corn within the starry cosmos, providing a deceptively lighthearted meditation on the delicate way forward for heritage foodways. Unintentionally echoing the latest Blue Origin rocket launch by Amazon CEO (and Entire Meals mogul) Jeff Bezos, Romero’s piece reimagines the longer term not as an unclaimed playground for tech billionaires, however as an area the place ancestral data and sustainability can thrive.
Sales space of Bruce Silverstein Gallery with works by Dakota Mace and Sarah Sense
Whereas Niro, Jackson, Miles and Romero anchor a number of the honest’s most sly showcases, a variety of Indigenous photographers advance highly effective, self-determined narratives with extra sincerity. Monroe Gallery of Pictures, additionally primarily based in Santa Fe, is displaying placing works from Diné photographer Eugene Tapahe’s Artwork Heals: The Jingle Costume Challenge (2020-present), which intertwines ritual and protest to foster collective therapeutic. On the sales space of New York’s personal Bruce Silverstein Gallery, Dakota Mace (Diné) and Sarah Sense (Choctaw-Chitimacha) flip to oral histories and archival analysis, respectively, to interrogate how particular person reminiscence shapes shared tradition.
Collectively, these artists are redefining the boundaries of the photographic canon, positioning Indigenous expertise not as topic, however as a significant essential lens. Amid the honest’s fixed movement, these works handle to anchor you — typically with humor, typically with tenderness, usually with each.
