This fall the Moody presents Radiant Geometries, a group exhibition that explores Indigenous knowledge systems and their longstanding relationship with mathematics, science, and technology in the Americas. Through a hemispheric perspective that views North, Central, and South America as interconnected fields, this exhibition brings together contemporary Indigenous and Latin American artists whose practices illuminate vectors of knowledge in which the mathematical, metaphysical, and artistic converge. The included works—among them paintings, sculptures, textiles, video installations, and site-specific commissions—reveal a radiance of geometrical forms emerging from relational teachings rooted in the Americas. 

At its core, Radiant Geometries centers Indigenous ways of knowing that continue to shape relationships to territories, waterways, and interspecies care. The exhibition reframes the histories of mathematics, architecture, and science to highlight Indigenous knowledge. These ideas emerge through Eamon Ore-Giron’s painting of an Incan dark constellation, Patrick Martinez’s installation inspired by the pre-Columbian murals on the Cacaxtla pyramid mounds in central Mexico, and Natalia Montoya’s totemic sculptures referencing an Aymara dance that honors agricultural cycles. Newly commissioned works will respond to sonic technologies, the dynamic beadwork of Cheyenne cultural belongings held in the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, and Mayan ceramics in Rice University’s collection, which will feature in the exhibition. Collectively, the works situate creation stories, ceremony, and kinship as living knowledge structures that shape relational understandings of the world.  

Featured artists include Nanibah Chacon (Diné/Chicana) (b. 1980 in Gallup, New Mexico; lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico), Melissa Cody (Navajo/Diné) (b. 1983 in No Water Mesa, Arizona; lives in Long Beach, California), Jordan Ann Craig (Northern Cheyenne) (b. 1992 in San Jose, California; lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico), Patricia Domínguez (b. 1984 in Santiago de Chile; lives in Puchuncaví, Chile), Sara Flores (Shipibo-Konibo) (b. 1950 in Tambomayo, Peru; lives in Yarinacocha, Peru), Suzanne Kite (Oglála Lakȟóta) (b. 1990 in Sylmar, California; lives in Catskill, New York), Natalia Montoya Lecaros (Aymara) (b. 1994 in Iquique, Chile; lives in Santiago de Chile), Patrick Martinez (b. 1980 in Pasadena, California; lives in Los Angeles), Cisco Merel (b. 1981 in Panama City; lives in Panama City), Caroline Monnet (Anishinaabe/French) (b. 1985 in Ottawa, Canada; lives in Montreal), and Eamon Ore-Giron (b. 1973 in Tucson, Arizona; lives in Los Angeles), among others.  

The exhibition is curated by Noor Alé, Associate Curator. Graphic design is by Sébastien Aubin.  

Radiant Geometries: Vectors of Knowledge from the Indigenous Americas is made possible by the Libbie Rice Shearn Moody Fund for the Arts and the Thomas D. and Pamela Riley Smith Endowment for the Moody Center for the Arts. Major support is provided by the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, the Elizabeth Lee Moody Excellence Fund, the H. Russell Pitman Fund for the Moody Center for the Arts, and the Moody Center for the Arts Founders Circle.