Upcoming Events

Join guest curator Maria Hupfield and several of the participating artists in our current exhibition, The First Water Is the Body, for this virtual discussion of the show and their work. The exhibition, which opened in October and is closing on January 23, was recently highlighted in Artforum as a top pick of 2021.

The exhibition takes its title from a poem by Natalie Diaz, published in her book, Postcolonial Love Poem. A visual complement to Diaz’s text, the work in this exhibition accepts the body as the human form of water and that the fate of water is the fate of all people. Featuring the work of 16 electric and unapologetic makers that belong to and operate in relation with Indigenous communities from across the USA and Canada, these artists work to produce seismic shifts in cultural perspectives that point to reciprocity and critical accountability and awaken solidarity with place, lands, and waters.

Maria Hupfield is an artist, educator, and member of the Anishinaabek Nation from Wasauksing First Nation, Ontario, Canada. A fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by Hupfield accompanies the exhibition. The exhibition and publication are funded in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the NJ Council for the Humanities.