Four Native Artists Commissioned for Counterpublic Triennial
Plus, the High Line’s fall lineup, new curators at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a laid-off Artnet News reporter speaks out, and more in Art Movements.
Art Movements, published every Thursday afternoon, is a roundup of must-know news, appointments, awards, and other art-world happenings.
Native Artists Tapped for Counterpublic
The 2026 Counterpublic triennial in St. Louis, opening next month with the title Coyote Time, announced four new commissions by contemporary Native artists in partnership with the Walker Youngbird Foundation. These are among the close to 50 artworks that will debut across the city starting September 10.
Three artists invited by Anishinaabe curator Wanda Nanibush — Yatika Starr Fields, part of the Cherokee, Mvskoke (Creek) and Osage nations; Rebecca Belmore, a member of Lac Seul First Nation (Anishinaabe); and Tlingit and Unangax̂ artist Nicholas Galanin — will engage with sites along the Mississippi Riverfront in relation to the Gateway Arch, the tallest monument in the United States and a reminder of the rhetoric of “westward expansion” that displaced millions of Native Americans. At the invitation of curator Stefanie Hessler, the Oglála Lakȟóta artist Kite will build an installation along the riverfront and in Tower Grove Park, informed by a series of workshops during which community members shared their dreams.
NYC's High Line Reveals Fall Lineup
Marianna Simnett, Amol K. Patil, Alvaro Barrington, and Christopher Williams will create works for the fall program of the High Line in Manhattan, the organization shared this week. Simnett's video installation in a pair of food vendor carts, “Interlude,” will kick off the season in September, along with Williams's “MODEL” for the High Line's billboard at 10th Avenue and 18th Street, followed by debuts from Patil in October and Barrington in November. (The next coveted Plinth commission will be announced in 2027.)
Acquisitions
- The New Orleans Museum of Art has acquired “Mississippi Fountain” (also known as “The Mississippi”), a monumental 1961–62 sculpture by Isamu Noguchi. The 40-ton granite fountain centerpiece, gifted to the museum by the Besthoff family, was commissioned for architect Gordon Bunshaft's midcentury-modern K&B Plaza building in New Orleans.
- Two early works by Joan Jonas, the multimedia “Mirror Pieces Installation II” (1969/2014) and the film “Wind” (1968), have been jointly acquired by The Gund at Kenyon College and the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. These are the first works by the pioneering video and performance artist to enter both institutions.
What Else Happened?
