Gochman Family Collection Highlights Contemporary Native Artists as Phipps Prepares a New Chapter Beyond the Whitney
A collection can reveal its values in the details: the materials it elevates, the stories it chooses to carry forward, and the artists it backs before consensus hardens. In recent remarks tied to the Gochman Family Collection, curator Phipps pointed to a group of contemporary artists whose practices stretch from sculpture and painting to textile traditions rooted in storytelling.
Among the artists named was Ishi Glinsky, described as an artist who “pushes boundaries around the ideas of customary Native materials in really funny, quirky ways.” The emphasis on humor and material experimentation signals a collecting interest in work that refuses the solemn, ethnographic framing that Native art is too often forced to inhabit.
Phipps also highlighted Saif Azzuz, noting that the artist “does incredible things across sculpture and painting” and adding that Azzuz will have a show at Storm King this summer. The mention places Azzuz’s work in dialogue with an institution known for the physical and spatial demands it places on artists, where scale, landscape, and the viewer’s movement become part of the reading.
Textile traditions were equally central to Phipps’s account. Blanket weavers Lily Hope and her sister, Ursala Hudson, were cited as artists who are “pushing the narratives around weaving and storytelling.” In that framing, weaving is not treated as a secondary or “craft” practice, but as a narrative technology: a way of holding memory, lineage, and contemporary experience in a form that is both intimate and public.
The comments also offered a glimpse into Phipps’s approach to leadership and decision-making. Reflecting on prior experience at the Whitney, Phipps said, “I had all these incredibly brilliant colleagues to draw on, which is amazing, but it can also become a crutch to your own decision-making.”
Looking ahead, Phipps added, “I’m looking forward to pushing myself and the smaller team here, and learning to really trust my instincts.” The statement suggests a shift from the dense infrastructure of a major museum to a setting where choices may be more exposed, and where curatorial judgment is tested with fewer layers of institutional buffer.
Taken together, the artists Phipps singled out point to a collection attentive to contemporary Native practices across mediums, from the sly subversions of material expectation to the sustained narrative power of textiles. With Azzuz’s Storm King presentation on the horizon, the coming months will offer a public stage for at least one of those commitments to be seen at full scale.
