SHIRIN NESHAT, THE FURY
PHOTOGRAPHY, FILM Megan Christiansen PHOTOGRAPHY, FILM Megan Christiansen

SHIRIN NESHAT, THE FURY

The Fury, comprising a double-channel video installation and a series of black and white photographs. Shot in June 2022, The Fury seeks to capture the Zeitgeist: a sense of foreboding and dread sparked by the resurgence of fascism that we are witnessing…

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NONA FAUSTINE, MY COUNTRY
PHOTOGRAPHY, PRINTMAKING Megan Christiansen PHOTOGRAPHY, PRINTMAKING Megan Christiansen

NONA FAUSTINE, MY COUNTRY

In “My Country,” Faustine confronts and interrogates iconic American monuments, such as the Lincoln Memorial and the Statue of Liberty, using her camera to reframe conventional, colonialist perspectives, and reinserting some of the truth and trauma behind these memorialized spaces…

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KHADIJA SAYE, DWELLING: IN THIS SPACE WE BREATHE
PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen

KHADIJA SAYE, DWELLING: IN THIS SPACE WE BREATHE

The series was created out of the artist’s personal need for spiritual grounding after experiencing trauma. This work is based on the search for what gives meaning to our lives and what we hold onto in times of despair and life changing challenges. We exist in the marriage of physical and spiritual remembrance...

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AUSTN FISCHER, JESTERS GENDER GAME
PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen

AUSTN FISCHER, JESTERS GENDER GAME

Jesters Gender Game, a celebration of historical queer artists' fearless exploration of gender performance. This photographic project draws inspiration from visionaries like Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, who challenged gender norms through provocative self-portraits…

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STEPHEN SHAMES, BLACK PANTHER PARTY
PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen

STEPHEN SHAMES, BLACK PANTHER PARTY

The Black Panther party burst upon our consciousness when Bobby Seale and other Panthers marched upon the California State Capitol in Sacramento—armed with guns. This approach electrified a generation of black youth. But the Panthers did not encourage hatred…

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DILLON BRYANT, BLACK HILLS
PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen

DILLON BRYANT, BLACK HILLS

My practice explores constructions of home, desire, family mythologies, and the landscape in relation to the LGBT+ experience through collage and photography. Taken and found images sourced from family albums, maps, guide books, magazines, and other archives are reorientated to examine the legacies of western expansion and mining in the American West with focus on sites in South Dakota (SD) and California…

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ERIC HART JR, MISTER MISTER, 2023
PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen

ERIC HART JR, MISTER MISTER, 2023

It was based on the Shakespeare quote, ‘All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.’ I challenged that in my artist statement and followed up by asking- if all the world’s a stage, for whom is the show?…

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NICK DRAIN, WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT? ON BLACKNESS, IMAGES AND (IN)VISIBILITY, 2020
TEACHING RESOURCES, PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen TEACHING RESOURCES, PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen

NICK DRAIN, WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT? ON BLACKNESS, IMAGES AND (IN)VISIBILITY, 2020

Nick Drain writes from a theoretical and historical lens on how the imaging of black people has served as a tool of white supremacy and oppression through modern history. Finally, he introduces the concept of selective visibility and "dark sousveillance" as an alternative strategy for black individuals in projected futures…

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RASHOD TAYLOR, MY AMERICA
PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen

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…

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KWAME BRATHWAITE, SELECTED WORKS
PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen

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…

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AWOL ERIZKU, SELECTED WORKS
PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen

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…

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VANESSA CHARLOT, BLACK WOMAN'S SHADOW
PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen

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…

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DAVID WOJNAROWICZ, SEX SERIES, 1988-89
PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen

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…

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AMBER N. FORD, MISTAKEN IDENTITY, 2018
PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen PHOTOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen

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…

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