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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
SHIKEITH, STILL WATERS RUN DEEP, 2021
Shikeith explores how Black queer re-making is a sacred space and practice in his two-part installation, still waters run deep / fall in your ways (2021). Using poetry, historical narratives, ambient recordings of children's rhymes, shades of blue, dance, and organic elements such as water, Shikeith maps Black men's negotiations of intimacy and routes toward freedom beyond architectural and societal constraints…
ZORA J MURFF, THE DEVIL HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT
In this collection of collages, Murff uses methodologies of enlightened witnessing and appropriation to demonstrate how a global conspiracy of anti-Black genocide has existed and continues to persist through systemic oppression…
KENNEDI CARTER, RIDIN’ SUCKA FREE
Ridin’ Sucka Free is a series that came about during conversations surrounding Black life in relation to horsemanship and agriculture. Pop culture’s interest in Black cowboys quickly rose following the release of Lil Nas X’s song Old Town Road…
MARLON RIGGS, BLACK IS...BLACK AIN'T, 1995
The final film by filmmaker Marlon Riggs, BLACK IS…BLACK AIN'T, jumps into the middle of explosive debates over Black identity. White Americans have always stereotyped African Americans. But the rigid definitions of "Blackness" that African Americans impose on each other, Riggs claims, have also been devastating…
RENEE COX, IT SHALL BE NAMED, 1994
In this 1992 work by Cox, a collage in the shape of a crucifix, is intricately constructed from several manipulated photographic negatives…
KALI SPITZER, AN EXPLORATION OF RESILIENCE
An Exploration of Resilience is about identity, culture, strength, vulnerability, and love - these images are about resilience. This work investigates different facets of people and how they explore themselves…
QUALEASHA WOOD, SELECTED WORKS
Qualeasha Wood is an interdisciplinary artist whose work contemplates realities around black female ontology that do and might exist. Inspired by a familial relationship to textiles, queer craft, Microsoft Paint and internet avatars Wood's tufted and tapestry pieces mesh traditional craft and contemporary technological materials…