Peter Blum Gallery is pleased to present Material Witness, a group exhibition of new and recent works by Candida Alvarez, Teresa Baker, Nicholas Galanin, Tomashi Jackson, Kapwani Kiwanga, and Brenda Mallory. The exhibition is on view at 176 Grand Street, New York from June 4 through July 24, 2026.
The exhibition Material Witness brings together artists who treat physical matter as an active archival record. Moving beyond pure abstraction, the works utilize materials to surface specific narratives. By interrogating the associations of their media, the artists transform the gallery into a site of testimony. Here, the "tactile" becomes a form of "telling," revealing how histories are woven and layered into the very structures of the contemporary world.
In these works, the choice of medium is never neutral; rather, the material carries the weight of its own sociopolitical and environmental lineage. Whether utilizing ceramic tiles, synthetic turf, or acrylic on linen, the artists in this exhibition treat the physical world as a repository of latent memory. The act of making becomes a process of unearthing, where the "witness" is found in the fibers, pigments, and structures that comprise our shared reality.
By re-contextualizing these materials within the gallery, the artists challenge the viewer to look past formal aesthetics and engage with the deeper histories of labor, Land, and identity. Abstraction serves as a gateway to these truths, providing a visual language that can express the complexities of systemic power and cultural resilience. Material Witness ultimately proposes that our built and natural environments are not static backgrounds, but are instead vibrant, testifying witnesses to the fluid processions of history.
Candida Alvarez (b. 1955, Brooklyn, NY; lives and works in New York, NY, Baroda, MI, and Chicago, IL) weaves together personal iconography with cultural memory. Utilizing a vibrant, multi-layered visual language that moves freely between abstraction and representation, she integrates fragments of everyday life and art historical references. Her work functions as a chromatic record of experience that engages with the emotional dimensions of painting through color, texture, and form. Notable solo exhibitions include El Museo del Barrio (New York, NY, 2025), and Chicago Cultural Center (Chicago, IL, 2017); group exhibitions include Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago, IL, 2023), and Whitney Museum of Art (New York, NY, 2023).
Teresa Baker (b. 1985, Watford City, ND; lives and works in Livingston, MT) is an artist whose practice explores the intersection of Indigenous identity and the natural landscape with all that it encompasses including culture, memory, and presences. Utilizing synthetic materials such as AstroTurf alongside organic materials, she maps Mandan and Hidatsa heritage onto expansive, tactile landscapes that challenge traditional Western conceptions of nature. Her work prioritizes a sensory engagement with place, proposing material as a primary site of cultural continuity. Notable solo exhibitions include Academy of Arts and Letters (New York, NY, 2025), The Arts Club of Chicago (Chicago, IL, 2024), Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (Phoenix, AZ, 2022); group exhibitions include Whitney Biennial (New York, NY, 2026).
Nicholas Galanin (b. 1979, Sitka, AK; lives and works in Sitka, AK) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice interrogates the impacts of colonization and the resilience of Indigenous sovereignty. Working across sculpture, installation, and performance, he utilizes a diverse range of media to confront viewers with their own assumptions about Indigenous art while asserting its continual evolution. By prioritizing the survival of cultural knowledge through contemporary material practice, his work fosters a critical dialogue surrounding memory and Land. Notable solo exhibitions include Baltimore Museum of Art (2024), Public Art Fund (New York, NY, 2023), SITE Santa Fe (Santa Fe, NM, 2023); group exhibitions include Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY, 2026).
Tomashi Jackson (b. 1980, Houston, TX; lives and works in Cambridge, MA) is an artist whose practice intersects the history of color theory with the sociopolitical realities of systemic power. Utilizing layered materials such as paper, gauze, and soil, she creates complex visual records that map the correlations between legislative policy and lived experience. By reconsidering formal poetics through the lens of social history, her work surfaces narratives of labor and displacement as tactile encounters. Notable solo exhibitions include Contemporary Art Museum (Houston, TX, 2025), Institute of Contemporary Art (Philadelphia, PA, 2024), Parrish Art Museum (Water Mill, NY, 2021); group exhibitions include Guggenheim Museum (New York, NY, 2023).
Kapwani Kiwanga (b. 1978, Hamilton, Canada; lives and works in Paris, France) is an artist who is informed by her academic background in anthropology and comparative religion, researching botanical and industrial histories to reveal the underlying structures of power asymmetries. Utilizing film, performance, and sensory installations, she transforms historical events into material archives that investigate the tension between inherited tradition and speculative futures. Notable solo exhibitions include Canadian Pavilion of Venice Biennale (Venice, Italy, 2024), Museum of Contemporary Art (Toronto, Canada, 2023), High Line Commission (New York, NY, 2023); group exhibitions include Bienial de Sāo Paulo (Sāo Paulo, Brazil, 2023).
Brenda Mallory (Cherokee Nation, b. 1955, Oklahoma; lives and works in Portland, OR) is an artist primarily working in sculpture and installation. Her practice utilizes reclaimed industrial materials—such as rubber and drive belts—to explore themes of structural memory, repair, and renewal. By dismantling and re-suturing objects into compelling formal arrangements, her work reflects the histories of survival and disruption inherent to Indigenous experience. Notable solo exhibitions include Gorman Museum of Native Art (Davis, CA, 2024), Heard Museum (Phoenix, AZ, 2023); group exhibitions include Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA, 2023), National Gallery of Art, (Washington, D.C., 2023).
For press inquiries, please contact Alejandro Jassan Studio at ale@alejassan.com or +1 (917) 257-1355.
For all other inquiries, please contact Kyle Harris at kyle@peterblumgallery.com or +1 (212) 244-6055.