Gallery wall featuring a map connecting Okmulgee, Oklahoma, and Ocmulgee, Georgia, alongside framed artworks and Harjo’s audio station. (Image by Mike Jensen)

Carlos Museum exhibition spotlights Mvskoke art and history in Atlanta

The Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University is presenting “Continuum,” an exhibition highlighting work by two Mvskoke Nation artists and examining how Indigenous history is represented in Atlanta. Rough Draft reports the exhibition is on view through Dec. 7 and will move to Emory’s Oxford campus for the 2026 academic year.

The show includes more than 20 pieces by artists Johnnie Diacon and Hotvlkuce Harjo. Their work spans watercolor, ink, painting, jewelry and sound. According to Miranda Kyle, curator of Indigenous Arts of the Americas at the museum, the project was designed to challenge the common practice of beginning Atlanta’s historical timeline around the Civil War.

“Atlanta tends to start history around the Civil War, and frame and fix Indigenous peoples as parts of a past history,” Kyle told Rough Draft. 

“This exhibition is intended to lend its voice to the rising tide of individuals and organizations, activists and communities calling for and working to re-educate the South on the Indigenous history and contemporary life of the peoples who have been displaced from their homelands.”

Kyle refers to “Continuum” as a “re-presencing” because the exhibition focuses on the ongoing contributions of Mvskoke people rather than presenting them solely in historical terms. The show incorporates a framework from Dr. Laura Harjo’s book Spiral to the Stars, which describes Mvskoke creativity as existing across time rather than in a linear sequence.

Visitors will encounter a large map connecting Ocmulgee in Georgia to Okmulgee in Oklahoma, reflecting the history of forced removal and present-day ties. Harjo also created an audio component accessible through headphones in the gallery. Kyle recommends visitors move through the gallery once on their own, then again while listening to Harjo’s soundscape.

Harjo’s work includes detailed ink drawings and portraits of young Mvskoke women, as well as a piece depicting traditional medicine practices. Kyle said the exhibition places the two artists’ works in conversation across generations.

Diacon’s pieces cover a range of subjects, including Mvskoke daily life and the role of Mvskoke code talkers during the Aleutian Islands campaign in World War II. He noted that exhibiting in Atlanta, within Mvskoke ancestral homelands, is significant to him.

“It’s always an extreme honor to represent our Mvskoke people with my art, especially in our ancestral homelands,” Diacon told Rough Draft.

“Continuum” aligns with Emory’s broader Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative, supported by the Mellon Foundation. The initiative includes language instruction, curriculum development with the College of the Mvskoke Nation, and an annual teach-in. During Kyle’s tenure, the museum also has increased its acquisition of contemporary Southeastern Indigenous art.

The exhibition is open to the public and aims to provide additional context on Mvskoke history and present-day cultural expression.