Eric-Paul Riege’s ojo|-|ólǫ́ Revisits Diné Weaving Through the Lens of the Museum Archive

Diné artist Eric-Paul Riege debuts ojo|-|ólǫ́, a two-venue exhibition co-organized by Brown University’s Bell Gallery and the University of Washington’s Henry Art Gallery. Co-curated by Thea Quiray Tagle and Nina Bozicnik, the project brings together textile, sculpture, sound, video, and performance to examine how Indigenous knowledge circulates through the spaces of the trading post, the marketplace, and the museum.

Rooted in Riege’s training as a weaver, the exhibition engages directly with the Navajo holdings at Brown’s Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology and the University of Washington’s Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. By placing new works in conversation with these collections, the artist considers how institutional archives shape public understandings of “authenticity,” value, and authorship in Native art and craft.

Installation view, Eric-Paul Riege, (my god, YE’ii [1-2]) (jaatłoh4Ye’iitsoh [1–6]) (a loom between Me+U, dah ‘iistł’ǫ́), Bockley Gallery, 2021. Photo by Rik Sferra. Image courtesy of the artist and Bockley Gallery

The sculptural component draws on Riege’s study of weaving patterns, combs, textiles, jewelry, and dolls made for tourist markets, alongside objects that blend Christian and Catholic iconography with Diné symbology. Rather than replicate archival models, the new works adopt deliberate irregularities and modular forms that can shift over time, treating cultural continuity as an active practice rather than a fixed inheritance.

Performance remains central to the project. Riege extends the themes of the sculptures into durational solo works that foreground embodied knowledge and the lived experience of making. These performances address the visibility of Native artists in institutional settings while employing strategies of refusal and opacity that protect self-determination.

The exhibition’s bi-coastal structure underscores histories of dispersal and displacement that have shaped Diné cultural production and kinship, as well as the movement of objects and ancestors into museum care. In this context, ojo|-|ólǫ́ proposes research and display methods that remain accountable to originating communities and that question the assumptions embedded in anthropological collecting.

A publication designed by Luminosity Labs accompanies the project, combining images, essays, and contributions from Riege’s collaborators. Support for the Brown presentation is provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Terra Foundation for American Art, Becky Gochman P’27, and David Gochman ’87 P’27. Visitors can find the Bell Gallery in the List Art Building at 64 College Street in Providence; when exhibitions are on view, hours are daily 11 a.m.–5 p.m., with extended hours on Thursdays and Fridays.

On view at the Bell Gallery: September 3–December 7, 2025. On view at the Henry Art Gallery: March 15–August 30, 2026.

Eric-Paul Riege, +, 2021. Mixed fibers, dimensions variable. Installation view: Prospect.5:Yesterday we said tomorrow, 2021-22. Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans. CourtesyProspect New Orleans. Photo: Alex Mark