Virtual Artist Talk: Susan Hudson & Kent Monkman

Quilted Survivance: Susan Hudson and the Navajo Quilt Project

Moderated By: Annie Drysdale and Claire Pelaez Motsinger
Artist Panelists: Susan Hudson and Kent Monkman

January 9, 2026, 5pm MST on Zoom

Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85799362475?pwd=hFoDrNQjg4cAeSpS5Lu9nM82AVBRYX.1

Quilted Survivance is an exhibition that offers a vibrant and playful safe space for the viewer while simultaneously presenting them with the intense imagery of historic truths associated with the violence and forced assimilation of Native Americans, specifically the lived experiences of contemporary ledger quilt artist Susan Hudson’s Navajo Ancestors, from contact until now. Survivance goes beyond survival, instead embracing an exuberant celebration of culture and an act of resistance to colonial violence.

Two world-renowned artists, Susan Hudson and Kent Monkman, will discuss the concept of survivance, as explored through their living artistic practices of quilting and oil painting. Both Hudson and Monkman utilize appropriated art forms to amplify familial stories of colonial violence endured by Indigenous communities of North America; narratives that have historically been obscured and purposefully misrepresented by the systems perpetrating them. 

Susan Hudson is the descendant of many strong Navajo women and a contemporary ledger quilter who has tapped into the survivance narrative through her artwork. Through quilting, Hudson chronicles the sacrifices and strengths of her Ancestors and remembers their hardships. Important pieces in her work include the quilts depicting the  Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives crisis, the Long Walk of the Navajos, and the Toadlena Indian Boarding School experience. 

Hudson’s quilts have been acquired for collection by the International Quilt Museum, Heard Museum, Autry Western Museum, Riverside Museum, and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. Other acquisitions include the Gochman Collection, the John and Susan Horseman Foundation, and many private collectors. She was awarded as a 2024 National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellow by the U.S. Congress, and is recognized as the first Indigenous Storyquilter in the United States.

Hudson has become a Woman Activist through Quilting, speaking for those who are silenced, and creating space for celebration and community through her advocacy work. Hudson is a co-founder of the Navajo Quilt Project, which engages with the community, making quilts for giveaways and traditional ceremonies, creates space for the transfer of culture between generations, and empowers others to start their own businesses. 

Kent Monkman is an interdisciplinary Cree visual artist. A member of ocêkwi sîpiy (Fisher River Cree Nation) in Treaty 5 Territory (Manitoba), he lives and works between New York City and Toronto.

Monkman’s gender-fluid alter ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testicle, often appears in his work as a time-travelling, shape-shifting, supernatural being who reverses the colonial gaze to challenge received notions of history and Indigenous peoples. His artworks are held in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Denver Art Museum; the Hirshhorn Museum; the Hood Museum of Art; the Heard Museum; Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal; the Glenbow Museum; macLYON; and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Private collections that house his works include Art Bridges;

the Horseman Foundation; the Tia Collection, the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation; Forge Project; the Gochman Family Collection; the Sobey Art Foundation; and the Rob & Monique Sobey Foundation.

In 2019, Monkman was commissioned as the inaugural artist to make two monumental paintings for The Met’s Great Hall Commission project. In 2023, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada—Canada’s highest civilian honour—and in 2025, he received the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.