Now Exhibitions

Anna Tsouhlarakis: The Native Guide Project: Columbus 

World Premiere

Black text against a white background reads, “I REALLY LIKE HOW YOU LISTEN WHEN THE MOUNDS SPEAK.”
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Feb 11, 2023–Jul 09, 2023
Wexner Center for the Arts

Free for all audiences

Click here to view our latest COVID-19 protocols.

See a full list of gallery policies on wexarts.org, including items prohibited in the galleries.

ACCESSIBILITY
We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. If you have questions about accessibility or require an accommodation to participate, please contact Accessibility Manager Helyn Marshall at accessibility@wexarts.org or via telephone at (614) 688-3890. Requests made by two weeks in advance will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the Wexner Center for the Arts will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.

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Reframing the discourse around Native American identity, artist of Navajo, Creek, and Greek descent Anna Tsouhlarakis focuses on the forced migration of Indigenous peoples—including in Central Ohio.

A multilayered commission, The Native Guide Project: Columbus builds on Tsouhlarakis’s The Native Guide Project (2019–present), which deploys boldface phrases such as “I LIKE HOW YOU SEE NATIVE AMERICANS AS YOUR INTELLECTUAL EQUAL.” The Native Guide Project: Columbus is installed on the building’s exterior grid scaffolding and in the interior lobby, as well as digital signage sites around Columbus through a partnership with Orange Barrel Media.

Framed as responses to a potential interlocutor, Tsouhlarakis’s texts encourage viewers to question their complicity in the ongoing erasure and displacement of Indigenous tribes. The work references the more than 10,000 earthworks across Ohio built by Native people long before the arrival of settler-colonists.

The Native Guide Project: Columbus continues the artist’s earlier text-based works such as Edges of the Ephemeral (2012) and In Other Words: A Native Primer (2013)—in which she worked closely with members of Native American communities about their beliefs and experiences.

In January and February 2023, the center’s dedicated video gallery The Box will present Tsouhlarakis’s short Breath of Wind.

Black text against a white background reads, “I REALLY LIKE HOW YOU LISTEN WHEN THE MOUNDS SPEAK.”

Anna Tsouhlarakis, The Native Guide Project: Columbus, 2023. Image courtesy of the artist.

Several white signs with black texts are hung against a multi-hued grey wall. A wooden floor contrasts the wall. A bookstore is in the background.

Anna Tsouhlarakis, A Native Guide: Columbus, installation view at the Wexner Center, photo: Stephen Takacs.

A white sign with black text is installed on an architectural grid framework. A brick structure contrasts with the white grid architecture.

Anna Tsouhlarakis, It's True! There Was a Voice Before Columbus., installation view at the Wexner Center, photo: Stephen Takacs.

A white sign with black text is installed outside against an architectural grid framework.

Anna Tsouhlarakis, I Notice How You Listen When the Mounds Speak., installation view at the Wexner Center, photo: Stephen Takacs.

Related Material

More about the artist

Anna Tsouhlarakis chevron-down chevron-up

Anna Tsouhlarakis (she/her) has been part of national and international exhibitions at venues such as Rush Arts in New York; Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto; Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University; Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arizona; IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe; Heard Museum in Phoenix; and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC. Learn more on Tsouhlarakis’s website. 

Tag(s)

Anna Tsouhlarakis: The Native Guide Project: Columbus is curated by Chief Curator and Director of Exhibitions Kelly Kivland with Curatorial Intern Bethani Blake.

SPECIAL PROJECT SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Orange Barrel Media

WINTER/SPRING EXHIBITIONS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Cardinal Health
Karen R. Lane
Nancy and Dave Gill 

EXHIBITION 2022–23 SEASON MADE POSSIBLE BY
Bill and Sheila Lambert
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
Carol and David Aronowitz
Crane Family Foundation
Mike and Paige Crane

FREE GALLERIES MADE POSSIBLE BY
American Electric Power Foundation
Adam Flatto
Mary and C. Robert Kidder
Bill and Sheila Lambert

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR FREE GALLERIES PROVIDED BY
CoverMyMeds
PNC Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Wexner Family
National Endowment for the Arts
Ohio Arts Council
L Brands Foundation
The Columbus Foundation
Nationwide Foundation
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Mike and Paige Crane
Axium Packaging
CampusParc
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams
President Kristina M. Johnson and Mrs. Veronica Meinhard
Nancy Kramer
Larry and Donna James
Lisa Barton
Johanna DeStefano
Jones Day
Alex and Renée Shumate

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Past Film/Video

Anna Tsouhlarakis

Breath of Wind (2017)
Mon, Jan 09, 2023 - Tue, Feb 28, 2023
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Now Exhibitions

Anna Tsouhlarakis: The Native Guide Project: Columbus 

Feb 11, 2023–Jul 09, 2023
Tuesday's Hours 11AM–5PM
Wexner Center for the Arts

Free for all audiences

Click here to view our latest COVID-19 protocols.

See a full list of gallery policies on wexarts.org, including items prohibited in the galleries.

ACCESSIBILITY
We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. If you have questions about accessibility or require an accommodation to participate, please contact Accessibility Manager Helyn Marshall at accessibility@wexarts.org or via telephone at (614) 688-3890. Requests made by two weeks in advance will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the Wexner Center for the Arts will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.

Become a Member