Jeffrey Gibson, the first Indigenous artist to represent the United States with a solo presentation at the Venice Biennale, has opened a survey of the past decade of his work in Washington, D.C. "Jeffrey Gibson: A Real Love Thing" is on view at the Irene and Richard Frary Gallery inside the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center, running from 27 October 2026 through 13 March 2027.

The show gathers sculpture, photography, printmaking, textiles and painting, tracing how Gibson weaves song lyrics, repeated patterns and bold colour into a single visual language. Among the works are "Dewdrops in the Garden" (2025), a large canvas set with glass beads and artificial sinew, and "Don't Make Me Over" (2024), a hand-dyed garment covered in beads, sequins and holographic vinyl and hung on pine tipi poles, previously shown in his MASS MoCA exhibition. A new 2026 painting, "All the things that led to this exact moment (Deep Blue)", makes its debut in the show.

The exhibition's title comes from a 1971 interview in which the Washington-born soul singer Marvin Gaye, describing his album "What's Going On", said he had a real love thing going, adding that he loved people, life and nature. Gibson, a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians who is also of Cherokee descent, draws on pattern, queer iconography and his Indigenous heritage, treating beauty as a way of imagining a more connected and compassionate future.

On 12 November Gibson will deliver the fourth Sam Gilliam Lecture at the Bloomberg Center, in conversation with Melissa Walls of the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health, during Native American Heritage Month. A catalogue with a newly commissioned essay by Amy Halliday accompanies the exhibition, and Gibson's travelling solo show "They Teach Love" is on view at the University of Oregon through 7 March.