Designed to Be Red: Native American & Indigenous Poster Works

Poster House in Chelsea is showing Designed to Be Red in its main gallery from September 25, 2026, through February 21, 2027. The exhibition argues that Native designers have too often been treated as subjects of graphic design rather than its authors. Marketing teams and mythmakers have long told stories about Indigenous peoples instead of with them, producing reductive images that cast living communities as figures of the past. This show follows the design history that ran alongside, and against, that narrative.

The checklist spans nearly two centuries and more than 60 tribes and nations. Highlights include Respect Our Vision (1976) by the Menominee Solidarity Committee, Because Once You Enter My House, It Becomes Our House (2021) by Jeffrey Gibson and Dana Claxton, Ryan Red Corn's 2009 poster for the National Museum of the American Indian anniversary, and a c. 1975 Akwesasne Notes portrait poster. The range runs from protest and advocacy to celebration of culture.

Brian Johnson of the Monacan Indian Nation curated the show. He is a designer, a partner at Polymode, and a co-founder of the online platform BIPOC Design History. Plan on about an hour. The museum rates the exhibition PG-13 for some racist and violent imagery and language.

A full program accompanies the run: docent tours, Spanish-language tours, verbal description tours, a book talk and signing, and an Indigenous Designers Night with Relative Arts on November 20. An audio guide is available. Johnson's companion book, also titled Designed to Be Red, is sold in the Poster House Shop.