Native art exhibition space to open in Katonah

Emmi Whitehorse (b.1957, Diné/Navajo), “Stick Seed,” 2022. Oil, chalk, graphite, and pastel on paper mounted to canvas. 

A new exhibition and gathering space for contemporary native art of the Gochman Family Collection — Branchline — opens Friday, Nov. 6, in Katonah. It will establish a permanent public destination for the GFC collection while continuing its lending program. 

Founded in 2021, GFC has grown to include more than 800 works, with more than 260 appearing in over 100 exhibitions internationally, including works loaned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum, New Museum New-York Historical, National Museum of the American Indian, The Broad, and National Gallery of Canada, among others. Branchline will give the collection a permanent public home for the first time without curtailing the lending program that has defined it.

The new arts space will open with ”Line Break,” an exhibition organized by GFC Assistant Curator Moonoka Begay (Ndee + Diné), with Collection Associate Nicole van Brugge, bringing together 18 artists and works dating from the 1950s to the present. 

The exhibition takes line as both a formal and conceptual framework, considering its relationship to cartography, borders and landscape; sound, migration and movement; and the transmission of knowledge across generations.

Artists include Saif Azzuz, Teresa Baker, Andrea Carlson, Nanibah Chacon, Raven Chacon, Berdina Y. Charley, Sara Flores, Jeffrey Gibson, Ishi Glinsky, Faye HeavyShield, Rachel Martin, George Morrison, Nadia Myre, Jean Shin, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Kay WalkingStick, Marie Watt, and Emmi Whitehorse, working across painting, sculpture, sound, textiles, drawing and mixed media.   

The arts space comprises three historic buildings in Katonah. 

The Main Gallery and Annex will open in November. The Barn and outdoor Sculpture Deck following in 2027. In addition to galleries, the campus includes studio space and two residential apartments for invited artists.