It’s a decent rule that if you have to explain someone is famous, they probably aren’t. This is usually the case in the art world, where fame is niche, subjective and often fleeting. But even in this realm, insiders were surprised when the Native American contemporary artist Jeffrey Gibson was chosen to represent the US in the 2024 Venice Biennale, an art-world Olympics where about 70 countries present exhibitions around the canal city.
Unlike his immediate predecessors, Gibson isn’t represented by a blue-chip gallery, doesn’t command million-dollar prices and hasn’t been the subject of blockbuster museum shows around the globe. Not only is he not real-world famous, but at the time of the announcement last summer, he wasn’t art-world famous, either.
