Now Exhibitions

Tanya Lukin Linklater: Inner blades of grass (soft) inner blades of grass (cured) inner blades of grass (bruised by the weather)

Artist Residency

A tall, semicircular sculpture of fifteen curved wooden ribs on a metal base sits near a video projection depicting two figures reclining on a rock.

Experience visual and performing art by Sugpiaq artist, writer, and Wexner Center Artist Residency Award recipient Tanya Lukin Linklater in her first US survey exhibition.

Her largest presentation to date, the exhibition explores Lukin Linklater’s multidisciplinary practice over the past decade and features a Wex-commissioned project informed by her visit to Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks in Newark, Ohio, the nation’s newest United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site. You’ll encounter other new works that cite Indigenous art lineages, embrace ancestral belongings, and consider how weather organizes communities as well as our environment.

Lukin Linklater’s perception of time and place comes across in her sculpture, installation, rehearsals, video, works on paper, and writing. She explains that her practice is inspired by her upbringing in the Kodiak archipelago of Alaska. “I look to my Alutiiq/Sugpiaq knowledges in relation to our homelands, waterways, atmospheres and our minds.”

The exhibition’s title is informed by an interview with the late Sugpiaq cultural worker Eunice von Scheele Neseth and a poem by Oglala Lakota poet Layli Long Solider. Describing grass in different states—soft, cured, and bruised by the weather—references the procedures that women of Kodiak Island follow when harvesting and processing plant material used to weave baskets. The imagery evoked by the words also asks viewers to consider observation and touch in the acts of restoration and repair.

During the exhibition’s opening and closing moments, visitors can experience a multiday series of improvisational open rehearsals with dance artists in relation to Structure of Sustenance Three in the galleries. 

In August, Inner blades of grass will also culminate with a gathering of Indigenous artists, musicians, poets, and performers.

Open Rehearsals: Scrape soak steam pour crack sew bend brace.

Open rehearsals will take place 2–5 PM in the galleries with dance artists in relation to Structure of Sustenance Three on the following days:

  • Jun 1, 2, 4, and 5
  • Aug 13–17

Artists:

  • Dance artists: Sam Aros-Mitchell, Ivanie Aubin-Malo, Talia Dixon, Ceinwen Gobert, and lisa nevada
  • Choreographer: Tanya Lukin Linklater
  • Outside eye/facilitator: Rosy Simas
  • Costume, styling, and studio assistant: Mina Linklater

Learn more about the artists.

A tall, semicircular sculpture of fifteen curved wooden ribs on a metal base sits near a video projection depicting two figures reclining on a rock.

Tanya Lukin Linklater: Inner blades of grass (soft) inner blades of grass (cured) inner blades of grass (bruised by the weather), installation view at the Wexner Center for the Arts, 2024.

Two people look at a gallery installation. Abalone shells rest on an orange tarp draped over a low wall and on packing blankets rolled up next to it.

Tanya Lukin Linklater: Inner blades of grass (soft) inner blades of grass (cured) inner blades of grass (bruised by the weather), installation view at the Wexner Center for the Arts, 2024.

A gallery space with large windows and skylights displays blue triangular wooden sculptures, a plinth with a video projection, and framed prints.

Tanya Lukin Linklater: Inner blades of grass (soft) inner blades of grass (cured) inner blades of grass (bruised by the weather), installation view at the Wexner Center for the Arts, 2024.

A gallery space with large windows and skylights displays blue triangular wooden sculptures, a furniture dolly, and framed prints.

Tanya Lukin Linklater: Inner blades of grass (soft) inner blades of grass (cured) inner blades of grass (bruised by the weather), installation view at the Wexner Center for the Arts, 2024.

A person looks toward a gallery wall with fifteen framed paintings of abstracted, brightly colored, script-style letters and words.

Tanya Lukin Linklater: Inner blades of grass (soft) inner blades of grass (cured) inner blades of grass (bruised by the weather), installation view at the Wexner Center for the Arts, 2024.

Three stacks of wooden, handled sifting trays sit on a wooden gallery floor. Three horsehair bundles hang on one wall, and one on the adjacent wall.

Tanya Lukin Linklater, Horse Hair Question 1, 2016. Horsehair bundles, cotton string, antler velvet, nails, American ash wood, American cherry wood, brass screws, steel screws, steel-mesh screens, drywall, and steel studs, dimensions variable. Installation view of Tanya Lukin Linklater: Inner blades of grass (soft) inner blades of grass (cured) inner blades of grass (bruised by the weather) at the Wexner Center for the Arts, 2024. Collection of Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. Purchase, with funds from the Canada Council for the Arts, 2021 2020/145.

Rows of red scarves hang in a U-shaped above a circular platform. Knotted colorful scarves hang in front of windows near a tarp displaying horsehair.

Tanya Lukin Linklater: Inner blades of grass (soft) inner blades of grass (cured) inner blades of grass (bruised by the weather), installation view at the Wexner Center for the Arts, 2024.

About the Artist

Tanya Lukin Linklater chevron-down chevron-up

Tanya Lukin Linklater has recently participated in the Aichi Triennale, Japan; Gwangju Biennale, South Korea; New Museum Triennial, New York; and Toronto Biennial of Art. Her work has also been shown at the Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton; Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; among other institutions. Her first collection of poetry was Slow Scrape (published by The Centre for Expanded Poetics and Anteism Books in 2020 and by Talonbooks in 2022). A catalogue, Tanya Lukin Linklater: My mind is with the weather—copublished by the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; Oakville Galleries; and the Southern Alberta Art Gallery Maansiksikaitsitapiitsinikssin—was released in spring 2024. Lukin Linklater’s Alutiiq/Sugpiaq homelands are in southwestern Alaska where much of her family continues to live. She is a tribally enrolled member of the Native Villages of Afognak and Port Lions in the Kodiak archipelago. 

Learn more about the artist

Tanya Lukin Linklater: Inner blades of grass (soft) inner blades of grass (cured) inner blades of grass (bruised by the weather) is organized by Kelly Kivland, former head of exhibitions at the Wexner Center for the Arts and director and lead curator at Michigan Central, with support from Curatorial Assistant Jonathan Gonzalez. 

THIS PRESENTATION IS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Teiger Foundation
Canada Council for the Arts

EXHIBITIONS 2023–24 SEASON MADE POSSIBLE BY  
Bill and Sheila Lambert  
Carol and David Aronowitz  
Crane Family Foundation  

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

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR FREE GALLERIES PROVIDED BY  
Adam Flatto  
CoverMyMeds  
PNC Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY  
Ohio Department of Development

Greater Columbus Arts Council

The Wexner Family 

Institute of Museum and Library Services

Ohio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts 
CampusParc

Ohio State’s Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme

The Columbus Foundation 

Nationwide Foundation

Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease 

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY

Mike and Paige Crane

Axium Packaging

Nancy Kramer 
Ohio State Energy Partners  
Ohio History Fund/Ohio History Connection  
Larry and Donna James

David Crane and Elizabeth Dang

Bruce and Joy Soll

Rebecca Perry Damsen and Ben Towle

Jones Day  
Alex and Renée Shumate

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Now Exhibitions

Tanya Lukin Linklater: Inner blades of grass (soft) inner blades of grass (cured) inner blades of grass (bruised by the weather)