Since first opening in 2023, The Message is the Medium has served as an evolving platform for us to showcase works from the IMA’s permanent collection of contemporary art. Unlike a traditional show with a fixed roster of works, this ongoing presentation has had multiple iterations, offering new encounters on a regular basis. Some works remain and take on new resonance when seen in the company of fresh additions, while others rotate out, making space for new perspectives and ideas.

The third refresh continues that commitment to change, introducing significant new loans and reintroducing collection favorites in unexpected ways. For returning visitors, the refresh is an invitation to look again, to notice how meaning can shift when artworks are placed in new relationships. For those arriving for the first time, it’s a dynamic introduction to the many ways contemporary artists transform their materials into innovative objects.

One of the most exciting aspects of shaping this year’s checklist has been working with Art Bridges, an innovative foundation in Bentonville, Arkansas, to bring three pivotal works into the exhibition: Nam June Paik’s Internet Dweller, Judy Chicago’s Big Blue Pink, and Félix González-Torres’s Untitled (L.A.). These loans expand the scope of the show, adding important voices to the conversation and offering new opportunities to connect with key movements and ideas in contemporary art. I’m especially excited that we’re able to include González-Torres’s conceptual work, which consists of over two hundred pounds of green candies, continually refreshed as visitors take individual pieces from the pile. We sourced the candies from Indianapolis candy wholesaler J.D. Morse, and the spearmint flavor was chosen because it deters mice and insects.

This refresh also marks the first time that our own series of Sam Gilliam paintings, Red & Black, is on view at the IMA. A key work from Gilliam’s Black Paintings series, this group of 10 shaped canvases develops Gilliam’s painting technique in exciting ways. His process for this series involved cutting shapes from paintings on unstretched canvas and recombining them into larger compositions before stretching them onto custom-made, shaped frames. The result is a dynamic interplay of color and texture, where hints of bright hues emerge beneath dark, tar-like surfaces.

Sam Gilliam (American, 1933–2022), Red & Black, 1981, acrylic on canvas with collage, various dimensions. Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Gift of Aaron and Barbara Levine, 2008.48A-J. © Sam Gilliam.

Preparing Red & Black for display has been a project years in the making. When the work first entered the collection in 2008 it needed extensive surface cleaning, but at that time the conservation field did not have the tools to work with these contemporary pigments without risk. Only recently has the development of aqueous cleaning solutions made it possible to safely remove grime from the work’s complex surface and restore its depth of color and texture.

The conservation process was both meticulous and transformative. Layer by layer, conservation intern Paige Strobel and Clowes Conservator of Paintings Roxy Sperber lifted away years of dust, revealing the vibrant interplay of deep reds, blacks, and glimpses of bright color stained into the canvas itself. The result is not just a cleaner surface, but a renewed sense of presence, resulting in a work that can now be appreciated as Gilliam would have intended, with its full complexity of materials and forms visible. Including Red & Black in this year’s rotation feels like reintroducing a long-hidden voice, one that will hold its own alongside new loans and other collection highlights.

Curating an evolving exhibition like The Message is the Medium means thinking not only about individual pieces, but also about the changing balance of the whole. What kinds of themes do we want to explore this year? Which works will add perspectives that have not yet been represented in the galleries? Which familiar pieces should remain because they still have more to say?

These questions guide the selection process, the answers to which are rarely straightforward and only emerge through research and the careful weighing of possibilities. Our partnership with Art Bridges also plays a vital role in that process. By bringing in significant works from beyond our own collection, we’re able to broaden the scope of the stories the exhibition can tell. For some visitors, these loans will be a chance to encounter artists they’ve long admired. For others, they’ll be an introduction to works and ideas that reshape their understanding of contemporary art.

Ultimately, this third edition carries forward the exhibition’s central purpose to show how artists use their chosen mediums to create meaning, spark questions, and connect across time and place. My role as curator is not to fix a single reading, but to shape an environment where ideas and possibilities can unfold. The Message is the Medium thrives on that dynamism, and each iteration is a new passage in a living conversation that will keep evolving as long as the galleries do.

Get tickets to see this third iteration of The Message is the Medium: Contemporary Art at Newfields.