Performance & Artist Talk

This Portrait is NOT an Indian

Wed, Apr 15, 2026

4:00 PM–8:00 PM

Proshansky Auditorium,
CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Ave, NYC.
Free and open to the public.
Register below to attend.
ASL interpretation will be provided by SignNexus,
as well as Visual Vernacular for performances.

Kent Monkman, The Emergence of a Legend (2006)

Join us for a day of talks and performances hosted by Wanda Nanibush to accompany the exhibition Sovereign Acts III at The James Gallery in collaboration with Independent Curators International.

Join us for an afternoon of talks and performances in conjunction with the exhibition Sovereign Acts III at The James Gallery. The exhibition explores the relationship between nineteenth century performing “Indians” and contemporary performance art. Indigenous artists have taken up this nineteenth-century history to create self-representations in photography, performance, video, and installation that challenge ideas of normative and static identity. The artists turn to a range of aesthetic strategies, including re-enactment, remixing, memorialization, mimicry, parody, masquerade, and portraiture, underscoring the interdisciplinary nature of Indigenous art.

Speakers and performers include: Demian DinéYazhi’ with Rain from Heaven, Alan Michelson, Kent Monkman, Wanda Nanibush, Joseph Pierce, Jackson Polys, Jolene Rickard.

Order of Events:

Welcome, Claire Bishop

Introduction, Wanda Nanibush

Joel Sedano, Poem

Kent Monkman, The Emergence of a Legend

Jackson Polys, Playing Indian

Visual Sovereignty Panel: Jolene Rickard, Alan Michelson, Joseph Pierce, and Wanda Nanibush

Demian DinéYazhi’ An Infected Sunset performance with Rain from Heaven

Free and open to the public. Please register t o attend.

This event is co-sponsored by The James Gallery and the Center for the Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center, and Independent Curators International.