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Alan Michel­son’s ​“The Oys­ter” Trans­forms Gov­er­nors Island’s Waterfront

Jun 10, 2026 3:00 pm

A new sculp­tur­al instal­la­tion com­mis­sioned by More Art in part­ner­ship with the Bil­lion Oys­ter Project and Gov­er­nors Island Arts

On View: July 30 – Novem­ber 30, 2026 • West­ern Prom­e­nade, Gov­er­nors Island, New York 

More Art is thrilled to announce the open­ing of The Oys­ter, a mon­u­men­tal out­door sculp­tur­al com­mis­sion by inter­na­tion­al­ly rec­og­nized Mohawk artist Alan Michel­son (Six Nations of the Grand Riv­er). The work will be on view on Gov­er­nors Island from July 30 through Novem­ber 30, 2026. 

Pre­sent­ed as part of More Art’s 2026 ini­tia­tive Refram­ing 1776: Land, Water, and the Work of Repair, The Oys­ter responds to the nation’s 250^th anniver­sary through Indige­nous per­spec­tives and envi­ron­men­tal his­to­ries. Devel­oped in part­ner­ship with Bil­lion Oys­ter Project, and co-pre­sent­ed by Gov­er­nors Island Arts, the instal­la­tion ref­er­ences pre-colo­nial Lenape oys­ter mid­dens — vast accu­mu­la­tions of shells reflect­ing long his­to­ries of habi­ta­tion, stew­ard­ship, and rec­i­p­ro­cal rela­tion­ship in the region. 

Part land­form, part amphithe­ater, The Oys­ter invites vis­i­tors to gath­er with­in and around the work and to reflect on the inter­wo­ven his­to­ries of extrac­tion, trade, nour­ish­ment, dis­place­ment, and envi­ron­men­tal change embed­ded in the har­bor itself. The piece recalls Indige­nous geo­glyphs and shaped shell mid­dens, while its con­struc­tion draws direct­ly on the log­ic of reef build­ing, in par­tic­u­lar the gabion and recy­cled-shell struc­tures employed by Bil­lion Oys­ter Project. 

Encir­cling the sculp­ture, a large-scale text instal­la­tion paint­ed in pur­ple and white gath­ers reflec­tions on oys­ters drawn from lit­er­a­ture, his­to­ry, ecol­o­gy, and pop­u­lar cul­ture. The text also incor­po­rates con­tri­bu­tions from stu­dents at New York Har­bor School and mem­bers of the Gov­er­nors Island com­mu­ni­ty, while the paint­ed text’s palette ref­er­ences wampum — shell beads his­tor­i­cal­ly used by Lenape and oth­er East­ern Wood­lands nations in sacred cul­tur­al exchanges. 

Fol­low­ing the pro­jec­t’s close, ele­ments of the sculp­ture will be returned to New York Har­bor as part of local reef restora­tion efforts, extend­ing the life of the art­work as liv­ing marine infra­struc­ture. The Oys­ter asks us to engage with the par­al­lel era­sures of Indige­nous life­ways and oys­ter ecolo­gies in the har­bor, while point­ing toward the pos­si­bil­i­ty of restora­tion and renewal. 

About the Artist 

Alan Michel­son is a cel­e­brat­ed New York-based Mohawk artist, cura­tor, writer, and mem­ber of Six Nations of the Grand Riv­er. For more than three decades, he has cre­at­ed site-respon­sive works in sculp­ture, video, instal­la­tion, and pub­lic art that engage place, mem­o­ry, and sup­pressed his­to­ries through both Indige­nous and West­ern cul­tur­al forms. 

The Knowl­edge Keep­ers, his acclaimed major pub­lic com­mis­sion, stands at the Hunt­ing­ton Avenue entrance of the Muse­um of Fine Arts, Boston. Oth­er cur­rent projects include Hanödaga:yas (Town Destroy­er): Reflect at the new Prince­ton Uni­ver­si­ty Art Muse­um. Major pub­lic works include Man­tle (2018), a per­ma­nent mon­u­ment hon­or­ing Vir­gini­a’s Native nations locat­ed on the grounds of the Thomas Jef­fer­son-designed Vir­ginia State Capi­tol in Richmond. 

His writ­ings have appeared in Aper­ture, Frieze, and Octo­ber, and his work was recent­ly fea­tured on Art21. His work is held in the col­lec­tions of the Whit­ney Muse­um of Amer­i­can Art, the Smith­son­ian Amer­i­can Art Muse­um, and the Nation­al Gallery of Cana­da, among oth­ers. Michel­son is co-founder and co-cura­tor of Indige­nous New York, the influ­en­tial series orga­nized with the Vera List Cen­ter for Art and Politics. 

Land Acknowl­edge­ment

We acknowl­edge that The Oys­ter is sit­u­at­ed on Pag­gank (“Nut Island”), now known as Gov­er­nors Island, with­in Lenape­hok­ing, the ances­tral home­land of the Lenape peo­ple, whose con­nec­tions to the waters of New York Har­bor extend deep into the past. 

Oys­ters and their shells were an impor­tant part of Lenape cul­ture, and the shell mid­dens once found through­out the area attest to gen­er­a­tions of Indige­nous pres­ence and rela­tion­ships with these waters. Formed through the accu­mu­la­tion of shells over time, these mid­dens embod­ied long­stand­ing rela­tion­ships between Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties and the liv­ing abun­dance of the har­bor — rela­tion­ships pro­found­ly dis­rupt­ed by colonization. 

By return­ing atten­tion to the oys­ter as both eco­log­i­cal engi­neer and cul­tur­al anchor, The Oys­ter invites reflec­tion on his­to­ries embed­ded in the har­bor land­scape and on the Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties whose con­nec­tions to these waters con­tin­ue today.