(June 24, 2024 - Los Angeles, CA)—Future Imaginaries: Indigenous Art, Fashion, Technology explores the rise of Futurism within contemporary Indigenous art as a means of enduring colonial trauma, creating alternative futures and advocating for Indigenous knowledge systems as vital to achieving social justice in the present and sustainable communities going forward. 

As the artist Rose Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo Descent) explains, from her perspective, the idea of apocalypse is “an opportunity for innovation and for reflection and renewal. In a sense…Indigenous people have been at a privilege when it comes to any kind of hardship because we’ve already survived.” 

With the rise of the Red Power and the American Indian Movement in the 1970s, Native artists began looking to science fiction and imagined futures as a means of reclaiming agency within an increasingly technological society. By re-imagining aspects of pre-contact culture such as sovereignty, Indigenous technologies and sustainable lifeways in dialogue with both contemporary life and future imaginaries. 

Indigenous artists today are redefining what constitutes Native American art, helping their communities to heal from intergenerational trauma and creating pathways to a better life for Indigenous peoples and our shared planet. 

Featuring works of art ranging in size from jewelry and elaborately dressed mannequins to monumental sculptures and room-sized installations, Future Imaginaries will intersperse works throughout the museum, creating unexpected encounters and dialogues between contemporary Indigenous creations and historic works from the Autry collections.

The exhibition comprises approximately 58 works, including 50 loans, most directly from the artists. At least nine new works are being created for the exhibition, including the site-specific installations ReVolt 1680/2180: Sirens and Sikas by Virgil Ortiz and Stirs Up the Dust by Wendy Red Star. 

Future Imaginaries: Indigenous Art, Fashion, Technology is open from September 7, 2024, to June 21, 2026. 

For more information, please visit theAutry.org/PSTART.

Download press release as PDF (514.56 KB)