Fruitmarket Gallery’s current show is the Native American artist Jaune Quick-To-See Smith’s first posthumous presentation of work. The exhibition wasn’t initially intended this way—Jaune had wanted to spend time in Scotland to understand the history and politics of the land of Scotland to prepare for the exhibition, and was especially interested in the parallels between the Scottish Highland Clearances and the way in which land is often stolen from the Native American people, and then abused. Jaune passed earlier this year at the age of 85.
Nonetheless, Jaune’s intentionality permeates the exhibition’s curation. All My Relations (2025), her latest work, is a sculpture of a canoe which was designed specifically for Fruitmarket’s gallery space. Hanging in the stairwell which connects the lower and upper galleries, the canoe—which represents transportation in Native American semiology—brings the audience from the space of the land (lower gallery) to the space of the sky (upper gallery).
Wilding is a stunning sight to behold. Jaune’s use of colour is both beautiful and symbolic. Red ochre, which features heavily in her body of work, is a pigment made from the land, and a life-giving colour for many Native American tribes. It is also the central theme of her I See Red series, allowing her to reclaim the colour red as it is often used to demean her people.
Jaune’s devotion to political activism is evident in her work. Her map works, displayed in the lower gallery, reference those of Jasper Johns, a painter known for his pieces on American flags and identity. In a particularly moving piece, the names of American states are replaced with their Indian names instead. The Tierra Madre (Mother Earth) series showcases the ecological concerns of her activism, as each painting pays homage and draws attention to a specific female environmental activist.
Between 27 November to 29 November 2025, Fruitmarket’s music festival will be hosted at the gallery’s Warehouse. This year’s festival is titled Deep Time: I See Red, named after the series of paintings by Jaune Quick-To-See Smith which are currently on display in Wilding’s lower galleries, and is meant to reflect current ecological and cultural concerns.
Wilding is open to the public everyday between 11 am and 6 pm and will be showing until 2 February 2026.
Image provided by Fruitmarket Gallery
