Jeffrey Gibson
By Malcolm Gay
Jeffrey Gibson, the multidisciplinary artist who represented the United States at this year’s Venice Biennale, will create the next mural at Dewey Square, the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy announced Monday.
Gibson is scheduled to complete the mural, titled “your spirit whispering in my ear,” this September. The project is a collaboration with the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, where Gibson is slated to open an immersive installation in late 2024.
Gibson, a queer member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, called it an honor to work with the Greenway to create an artwork that “represents our resilient, joyful spirits and how we can pull strength from history.”
“‘Your spirit whispering in my ear’ are words that I wrote earlier this year as I thought about the challenges that my ancestors, and others, have endured during their lifetimes and how they met those difficulties with faith, courage, and strength,” he said in a statement. “I am not only speaking to my ancestors but also to artists, past and present activists, the planet, the universe, and to all living things surrounding us.”
The Greenway said the mural project will build on Gibson’s work for this year’s Biennale, “the space in which to place me,” a vibrantly colored collection of work that grapples with questions of identity, oppression, and the struggle for freedom.
Gibson has previously exhibited work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian. Locally, his 2021 show at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum earned a rave from the Globe’s Murray Whyte.
Gibson’s mural marks the 10th time the Greenway has commissioned an artwork for the Dewey Square wall. The current mural, Rob “Problak” Gibbs’s “Breathe Life Together,” will come down at the end of the month.
“Jeffrey’s art inspires authentic expression, celebrates representation, and provokes reflection that transcends time and culture,” executive director Chris Cook said in a statement. “As a champion of public art, partnering with Jeffrey and MASS MoCA is a tremendous opportunity to continue The Greenway’s legacy of unity by bridging communities, sparking conversation, and lifting up historically marginalized voices.”