Kay WalkingStick / Hudson River School at the Heard Museum

Hales is delighted to announce that the acclaimed solo exhibition Kay WalkingStick / Hudson River School is now on view at the Heard Museum,  Phoenix, AZ, USA through 25 May 2026, marking the third stop of its nationwide tour. The exhibition originated at The New York Historical in 2023 and travelled to the Addison Gallery of American Art in 2024.

 

Organised by The New York Historical, the exhibition showcases landscape paintings by the renowned contemporary Cherokee artist Kay WalkingStick in conversation with classic works from their collection of 19th-century Hudson River School paintings. This artistic dialogue spotlights how WalkingStick’s work connects to and diverges from the Hudson River School tradition. It also explores the agency of art in shaping humankind’s relationship to the land.

 

Kay WalkingStick / Hudson River School examines and highlights contemporary Indigenous art in the changing discourse of American art history, while also galvanizing critical discussions on land dispossession.

 

To coincide with Kay WalkingStick / Hudson River School, the Heard Museum invited WalkingStick to select rarely exhibited large-scale paintings as a guest-curator for Paintings from the Heard Collection. This exhibition includes artworks by Native artists spanning multiple generations in the Freeman Gallery and will be on view through 25 May 2026.