- Details
- By Kaili Berg
For the first time in over three decades, the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is hosting an exhibition of Native American art, one of the largest showcases of its kind in the Midwest.
Opening September 28, Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation will bring together more than 90 works from over 60 Anishinaabe artists across the Great Lakes region.
Running through April 8, 2026, visitors can expect a wide range of media, beadwork, birchbark, painting, sculpture, fashion, jewelry, photography, film, and more.
“This exhibition marks a powerful moment of visibility and celebration,” Dr. Denene De Quintal, the DIA’s Assistant Curator of Native American Art, who curated the show in close collaboration with a board of Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi artists said in a press release. “It reflects generations of artistry, storytelling, and resistance, and it’s the result of deep trust and shared vision.”
Themes of water protection, generational knowledge, and ancestral connection run throughout the exhibition, with symbols like the Thunderbird reinterpreted through a contemporary lens. Galleries are also presented in both English and Anishinaabemowin.
Featured artists include respected names like Jim Denomie, Monica Rickert-Bolter, Jason Quigno, George Morrison, and Kelly Church, alongside emerging voices such as ishkwaazhe Shane McSauby, Summer Yahbay, and Monica Jo Raphael. In total, the exhibit features artists from 21 different Anishinaabe tribal nations.
A full-length, illustrated catalogue published by Yale University Press will accompany the exhibition, with essays by leading Native scholars including Matthew L. M. Fletcher, Dr. Kendra Greendeer, and Dr. Shawnya Harris.
The book reflects on how Anishinaabe art challenges mainstream definitions of Indigenous and contemporary art, while amplifying voices that have long been excluded from dominant museum narratives.
Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation is free with museum admission and open to all. Admission is always free for residents of Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties.
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