The House Edge

The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation is pleased to present The House Edge, curated by Caitlin Chaisson. Opening on September 28 from 6–8pm at The 8th Floor (RSVP), the exhibition features the work of sixteen artists who consider the economic dimensions of Indigenous sovereignty. Though capitalism seeks to define relations between subjects and places, the artists demonstrate how notions of land ownership, property, and consumerism are contested and rewritten through diverse Indigenous practices. Showcasing drawing, painting, print, sculpture, video, and photography, with many works exhibited publicly for the first time, The House Edge will run through January 13, 2024.

Featured artists include David Bradley, Jim Denomie, Joe Feddersen, Harry Fonseca, G. Peter Jemison, Chaz John, Matthew Kirk, Terran Last Gun, Rachel Martin, Kimowan Metchewais, Nora Naranjo-Morse, Duane Slick, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Bently Spang, Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie, and Nico Williams.

The “house” addressed in the show’s title suggests multiple meanings: a place of belonging, a site of governmental assembly, and a reference to gambling, where the house is colloquially understood as the dealer or the casino. Since the first signing of treaties with the United States, Native American nations have defended their preexisting rights to govern the activities happening on their lands. In the 1970s, this self-determination was tested in the courts by a case involving high-stakes bingo operations, and a legal precedent was set. Congress eventually passed the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) in 1988, a jurisdictional framework to oversee what is now a multibillion-dollar industry.

The act has had immense material and symbolic effects. For nations that have pursued gaming (and less than half of federally recognized nations have), the wealth generated by casinos has been used for essential housing, education, medical, and infrastructural services, offsetting generations of hostile underfunding and deferrals of promised aid from the US government. Profits are further directed towards art and culture, including support for language revitalization and enabling governments to buy land back; however, IGRA has shifted the jurisdictions of state and federal powers, with Native American nations required to form state compacts to operate gaming enterprises. The fact that capitalist values of individual accumulation are incompatible with many Indigenous economies founded on principles of reciprocity and interdependence has also presented a divisive challenge. 

The multidisciplinary artworks presented in The House Edge facilitate important dialogues about wealth, power, culture, and the role of contemporary art in mediating value. Fall events will be announced soon, join our mailing list here. Please find a full press release here.

Caitlin Chaisson is a curator and critic based in New York and holds an MA from the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College. She recently worked at the Whitney Museum of American Art on Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map (2023) and at The Drawing Center on Drawing in the Continuous Present (2022) and Fernanda Laguna: The Path of the Heart (2022). Previously, she served as the Director and Curator of Far Afield (2016–19), an initiative that supports regionally-connected artistic and curatorial practices. She has also held positions at e-flux (New York City), Emily Carr University of Art and Design (Vancouver), and AKA Artist-Run Centre (Saskatoon). Her writing has appeared in Canadian Art, C Magazine, and frieze magazine, among others.

*Image description: A colorful oil painting depicting a casino in a splintered landscape of tall mesas. A person flies on a winged horse and trails money as they are chased. Hands reach up from the bottom depths of the canvas, reaching for the bills.