G. Peter Jemison

G. Peter Jemison (born 1945) is a Native American artist, curator, educator, and author. He is a citizen of the Seneca Nation of Indians.

He is the founding curator of the American Indian Community House Gallery in New York City. Jemison's artwork is held in major metropolitan museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the British Museum in London.

He created a unique series using Haudenosaunee imagery and designs on paper bags. Jemison gained early success by showing his art to Tibor De Nagy, a prominent Manhattan gallerist. After fast success in his career, he then looked inward to find inspiration in his Seneca roots.

Biography G. Peter Jemison was born in 1945 in Silver Creek, New York. Jemison is a citizen of the Seneca Nation of Indians and belongs to the Heron clan. His parents are Seneca people, but his unique surname comes from a Scots-Irish captive who decided to stay with the Seneca.

Career G. Peter Jemison 2013 in Germany at the opening of the "Irokesen" exhibition Jemison is a mixed-media artist well known for his art on paper bags as well as an author. His work is representative of orenda which is a Haudenosaunee belief that everything has a spiritual force. Jemison has brought the Seneca traditions to a large audience with his art and use of materials. One of the canvases he works on the most is paper bags. He got this idea from his train commutes noticing that the one thing many people had in common was they would all be carrying bags. Jemison seen this commonality and decided to use it to talk on issues and traditions of the Native community. He is also a strong advocate for Native American rights and repatriation of sacred objects. He was the chairman of the Haudenosaunee burial rules and regulations that fights for the return of the sacred objects. Jemison also was a part of the restoration of Ganondaga which was a 17th-century Seneca village. This restoration included a replica Seneca longhouse, visitor center, and changing gallery.

Artworks Real Indian Land Claims, 2000. Collage and paint on bag. This work depicts a Native American in custody on the front and two Klan members on the back with an anti-native sign. The work was created as a response to land claims between natives and non-natives in New York in the 1980s.

Sentinels (Large Yellow), 2006. Acrylic, oil, and collage on canvas. This work depicts dead sunflowers on a yellow patterned landscape. This work takes inspiration from Seneca bead work with the white and yellow patters around the sunflowers. The piece also refers back to Jemison's style of orenda work referencing the cycle of life and changing of the seasons.

Authored works Jemison, G. Peter. Haudenosaunee Artists: A Common Heritage : Contemporary Native American Art in Conjunction [i.e. Conjunction] with the Native American Festival, February 26-March 27, 1992. SUNY College at Brockport, Tower Fine Arts Gallery, 1992.

Jemison, G. Peter. “A Mohawk Village at the New York State Museum.” Curator (New York, N.Y.), vol. 36, no. 4, 1993, pp. 314–17.

Awards In 2023 Jemison was awarded the Johnson Fellowship for Artists Transforming Communities