LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER, PIER 54: A HUMAN RIGHT TO PASSAGE, 2014
In Pier 54: A Human Right to Passage, Frazier pays homage to her predecessors, documentary photographers of the late 19th century in which she shares the desire to comment on social, political, and economic conditions…
![BLACK MALE: REPRESENTATIONS OF MASCULINITY IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN ART [BROCHURE], 1994](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/658c59334bdfe52833434021/1739925948133-JR5SZLG4IBV9YAM1H9WK/blackmalebrochur2123unse_Page_01.jpg)
BLACK MALE: REPRESENTATIONS OF MASCULINITY IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN ART [BROCHURE], 1994
Curated by Thelma Golden, now the Director and Chief Curator at the Studio Museum of Harlem, Black Male investigated the complex aesthetics and politics at work in representations of African American men in the post-Civil Rights era...
RASHOD TAYLOR, MY AMERICA
My America is an examination of what it's like to live in America as a Black man. The wet plate collodion process was first introduced in the 1850’s. I use this process to connect the past to the present, and to explore the atrocities of slavery, Jim Crow and the institutional and systematic racism that remains so tightly woven into the fabric of American society…
ASIA STEWART, LA NÉGRESSE BLANCHE
La Négresse blanche is a six hour performance that marks the beginning of Stewart's Graft series. The piece is titled after Mayotte Capecia’s book of the same name and draws off of selections from Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks…
KWAME BRATHWAITE, SELECTED WORKS
Inspired in part by the writings of Marcus Garvey and the teachings of Carlos Cooks, Kwame Brathwaite's photography created the visual overture for the Black is Beautiful Movement in the late 50's and early 60’s…
MALCOLM PEACOCK, FIVE OF THEM WERE HERS AND SHE CARVED SHELTERS WITH WINDOWS INTO THE BACKS OF THEIR SKULLS, 2024
The central work of Peacock’s exhibition is a sculptural interpretation of a redwood tree trunk with synthetic hair braids forming its bark. It is so realistic in size that it appears as if it was freshly cut and placed in the gallery…
AWOL ERIZKU, SELECTED WORKS
Los Angeles-based artist Awol Erizku’s multi-disciplinary practice encompasses photography, sculpture, painting, installation, film, and sound to shape an artistic language that exists at the intersection of image making and language…
VANESSA CHARLOT, BLACK WOMAN'S SHADOW
In America, she lives in a perpetual state of trauma. To survive, she moves performatively through life, without processing her anguish. She symbolizes what has become the American norm—grieving, coping and healing in the shadows while carrying the burden that is one’s Blackness…
ARTHUR JAFA, APEX, 2013
Jafa has asked, at what scale should we consider the lives of Black Americans? For over thirty years—starting while he worked as a cinematographer—Jafa has compiled notebooks with clippings from a broad array of sources. His notebooks, facsimiles of which are on view nearby, are repositories of references and ideas that serve as reminders of the depth and beauty of Black life in America…
RAHIM FORTUNE, HARDTACK, LOOSE JOINTS, 2024
In the follow-up to his breakout monograph I can't stand to see you cry, Fortune borrows from the language of vernacular and archival photography to interrogate the historical relationship of his community to photography; rooted in the landscape…
DAVID WOJNAROWICZ, SEX SERIES, 1988-89
Working in New York City’s East Village during the late 1980s, Wojnarowicz created art that was both intensely political and deeply personal. The Sex Series emerged from an overwhelming sense of loss—of loved ones, of privacy…
AMBER N. FORD, MISTAKEN IDENTITY, 2018
The series, Mistaken Identity, shown in the group exhibition A Color Removed, tackles the question, “Who has the right to safety?” by presenting a collection of images of everyday objects that have been mistaken as weapons and led to the deaths of people of color at the hands of law enforcement officers…
PAZ ERRÁZURIZ, LA MANZANA DE ADÁN (ADAM’S APPLE)
The need to investigate environments wholly condemned in the oppressive context of the Chilean dictatorship (1973–90) led the photographer Paz Errázuriz to embark on a project on marginalized subjects that she would pursue over the course of several years…
SANDRA BREWSTER, ROOTS, 2021-2022
In her outdoor photographic installation, Roots, Toronto-based artist Sandra Brewster explores the long history of Black presence in the urban wilderness. Developed during her tenure as Koerner Artist in Residence at Evergreen Brick Works, the photographs document the area’s plant life, greeting visitors as they explore the valley…
GEORGE PLATT LYNES, SELECT NUDES
George Platt Lynes was a renowned American fashion and commercial photographer who enjoyed the prime of his career during the 1930s and 1940s. Although he was very sought after by major fashion publications for his beautiful images and stunning compositions, his real passion was the male nude, which he photographed extensively in the privacy of his studio…
MATTHEW LEIFHEIT, TO DIE ALIVE, 2022
To Die Alive conjures a hedonistic fever dream of Fire Island’s historic gay communities. The book contains 77 photographs by New York artist Matthew Leifheit taken by night over the past five years…
IMANI DENNISON AND LATETRA METTS-OWENS, NAKED TRUTH
In the series titled “Naked Truth,” a collaboration between fine artist Latetra Metts-Owens and Photographer, Imani Dennison, explores the truth behind people naked selves. In phase one of this project, subjects were interviewed and recorded on film, revealing things about themselves that were both uncomfortable and secret…
SONYA CLARK, BLACK HAIR FLAG, 2010
Traditional African American hairstyling techniques become the stars and stripes of the American flag against a backdrop of the Confederate Battle flag. The piece celebrates the roles African Americans played in the building of our nation…
MONA HATOUM, DEEP THROAT, 1996
Mona Hatoum has set the table for us with this artwork, Deep Throat, from 1996. The installation includes a table, roughly 3 feet square and just over 4 feet high, covered in a tablecloth with a single place setting and wooden chair in front of it…
ZOJA KALINOVSKIS, UNSEEN
Inspired by classical sculpture, Unseen portrays disabled bodies with reverence - as worthy of art instead of objects of pity. The series challenges the narrative that disability is synonymous with suffering and seeks to dismantle societal prejudices.