Kay WalkingStick | An Indigenous Present at the ICA Boston

Kay WalkingStick, Archetypal Image 1975 and Chief Joseph Series 1974-76 are included in An Indigenous Present at the ICA Boston through 8 March 2026.

 

An Indigenous Present is a thematic exhibition spanning 100 years of contemporary Indigenous art. The exhibition includes new commissions and significant works by 15 artists who use strategies of abstraction to represent personal and collective narratives, describe specific and imagined places, and build upon cultural and aesthetic traditions.

 

Archetypal Image, 1975, is a seminal example of WalkingStick’s early experiments in abstraction. Rooted in studies of a tipi, a bowed rectangular form stretches across the picture pane. Abstracting the representation of the tipi to present an ambiguous form allowed WalkingStick to push beyond literal interpretation and towards a deep engagement with modernism.

 

Chief Joseph Series (1974-76) continues this exploration in a tribute to the Nez Percé leader. Each of the 36 paintings in the series features a unique arrangement of four recurring arc forms - two small and two large segments of a sphere. Though entirely abstract and almost formulaic in conception, the rhythm and repetition of the multiple canvases evoke the long journey of Chief Joseph and his followers across hundreds of miles of Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana territories. At the level of the individual panels, this sense of movement is absent; in its place is an "absolutely static form" that the artist intended to convey a sense of eternal calm.

 

An Indigenous Present debuts at the ICA, before traveling to the Frist Art Museum in Nashville (June 26—September 27, 2026) and the Frye Art Museum in Seattle (November 7, 2026—February 14, 2027).