Wangari Mathenge
The curatorial staff at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields receive a lot of questions about how we select art works to acquire for the museum’s permanent collection. While we are always looking for works of the highest aesthetic and art historical value, the present moment is not yet history, and the emergence of new artists ensures that the canon of contemporary art will remain forever in development. The works on view in the exhibition Bold: New Voices in Contemporary Art offer a look into the museum’s contemporary collecting. Dating from 2004–2025, almost all these pieces were acquired for the collection in the last five years, and three quarters are on view at the museum for the first time. Together, they reveal the themes and ideas that have emerged as the most relevant and compelling in recent art, and offer a preview of the IMA’s future direction for contemporary exhibitions and programming.
Global Perspectives
The artists in Bold represent many generations and nationalities, and their groundbreaking works collectively reflect the dynamic, global conversations shaping art today. There is a particular focus in the exhibition on artists from Africa.
What emerges from this diversity is not merely a geographical spread, but a shared sense of urgency about questions of identity, belonging, and cultural memory. Many of the artists featured in Bold use their work to explore how local traditions and post-colonial experiences shape contemporary life. Artists today are increasingly questioning who has the authority to define modernity or aesthetic value. In museums around the world, there is growing acknowledgment that the Euro-American narrative of modern and contemporary art is just one among many. The works in Bold acknowledge that aesthetic innovation can appear anywhere, as artists reimagine their cultural inheritance and use it to speak to universal themes of humanity and resilience.
Unconventional Materials: Rethinking Hierarchies of Value
Another important theme linking the works in Bold is the use of unconventional media and materials. Many of the pieces in the exhibition are displayed on a wall and resemble paintings, but upon closer inspection are composed of materials that are not paint.
Historically, art making that is considered “craft” or “decorative,” such as sewing, weaving, and pottery, has not been accorded the same level of respect and value as the “fine arts” of painting, sculpture, and printmaking. By incorporating craft traditions into their work, the artists in Bold seek to elevate and reclaim forms of artistic production that had previously been anonymous and confined largely to the domestic sphere. These artists also understand that there has typically been a gendered aspect to these categorical divisions, with techniques traditionally seen as “feminine” more likely to be deemed “merely” craft or decoration. Together, they prompt reflection on the expanding possibilities of artistic expression and the frameworks that shape our understanding of the world and its possibilities.
Through its richly varied works, Bold: New Voices in Contemporary Art demonstrates that the IMA’s curators are not merely choosing works that reflect current trends; they are engaging with the artistic pulse of a changing world. As guests move through the exhibition, they encounter a constellation of ideas that expand our shared understanding of creativity in the 21st century. The exhibition ultimately affirms that, at its best, contemporary art continues to push us toward empathy, curiosity, and a deeper connection with the world we inhabit together.