Jeffrey Gibson

JEFFREY GIBSON

I Feel Real When You Hold Me, 2024

Mongolian Cashmere Blanket

Limited edition of 60

Published by Sharon Coplan Hurowitz for Sotheby’s

Made to benefit the U.S. Pavilion for the 60th Anniversary of the Venice Biennale

Sotheby’s is honored to partner with the commissioners of the U.S. Pavilion, the Portland Art Museum, Oregon, and SITE Santa Fe, New Mexico to create and present this special benefit edition for sale. As part of Sotheby’s philanthropic commitment to supporting artists, proceeds for the limited edition of 60 will support Jeffrey Gibson and the U.S. Pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale.

Renowned contemporary artist Jeffrey Gibson is a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent. Gibson will be the first Indigenous artist to represent the U.S. Pavilion with a solo exhibition at the 2024 Venice Biennale. 

Jeffrey Gibson on this benefit project with Sotheby’s:

The blanket design actually grew out of a flag that I designed for a performance in 2021, commissioned by the Aspen Art Museum. I’ve made flags before; the earliest one I can remember goes back to around 2010. Flags, for me, represent the idea of taking up space, in the model of nationhood. Different kinds of subcultures have created their own flags as ways of identifying themselves.

And then the text reads: “I feel real when you hold me.” It is in my handwriting, and I decided to layer it on top of the flag. It’s just my thinking about blankets and wrapping things, but also my relationship both to people and objects. Many North American collections contains objects that have been removed from their communities. The most important thing that people do when they are reunited with these objects is to hold them.

Expected ship date: April 2024.

This item is final sale and not eligible for return

Signed Jeffrey Gibson; numbered on a hand painted label cut from one of his canvases.