Solo Exhibitions

Ludovic Nkoth: You Sea Us is still on view at Luce Gallery in Turin, Italy until April 27, 2021

Deeply affected by events in his life, Ludovic Nkoth investigates identity issues aiming to know his own roots. The artist reflects on the displacement of black bodies, having the direct experience of alienation of those who have moved to a foreign place and feeling judged by the skin color. As a teenager, he emigrated from Cameroon to the United States, where he is yet viewed as an African, while in his native country he is considered American. The exhibited paintings, characterized by an expressive intensity of matter and chromatic choices, tell about Africa by depicting its symbols, such as masks and Cypraea shells, but also by portraying the desperate faces of its migrants swallowed by the waves crossing the sea. You Sea Us dissects the journeys of countless immigrants migrating from the African continent to Europe in search of hope and a better tomorrow.

Gary Burnley: In the Language of My Captor is still on view at Elizabeth Houston Gallery in New York, United States until April 24, 2021

In the Language of My Captor recasts the venerable tradition of 18th- and 19th-century European portraiture, carving out a space for alternate narratives whose central figures were not afforded the commensurate stature of the grand manner of painting. The discipline of portraiture has historically been a grasping at social status and economic power, giving permanence to the idealized visions of beauty it describes. However, Burnley imbues the medium with a doubly disruptive capacity, juxtaposing and overlapping imagery from different periods and sources, and softening their discrepancies with circular cutouts. Reframing an Ingres, Courbet, or Coypel, he populates their canvases with those who have been left outside the art historical cannon, centering the lives of Black women, men, and children at the core of cultural dialogue. Through the bricolage and universal appeal of the circle as symbol of unity and timelessness, he retells old tales in new inflections.

Allison Janae Hamilton: A Romance of Paradise is still on view at Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York, United States until April 24, 2021

For A Romance of Paradise, Hamilton presents new photographs, videos, and sculptural works that highlight the artist’s ongoing exploration of interwoven themes such as environmental justice, folklore and mythologies, and the traditions of communities living in vulnerable landscapes within the rural American South. The title of the exhibition takes the original denotation of the word paradise, meaning “heaven,” underscoring the myths of an Edenic southern landscape formed during the exploitative and violent southward expansion of the United States.

Screenings

Dislocated. Blackness in the City will be hosted online by 2727 California Street, United States on April 24, 2021

Programmed by Nan Collymore, the virtual screening will begin with Lefebvre’s spatial turn then re-center visual geographies to incorporate what Katherine McKittrick calls “black geographies.” The organizers are considering how to create a language that re-imagines the body as land and as a corporeal topography. Our interpolation into a landscape not our own constitutes this continuous agitation of one body (the human flesh, corporeal body) against another (the body of land). This film series will explore when we negotiate land, what this means in relation to Blackness – how is Blackness instantiated – how is it performed or formed, how does it gesture, and how does the Black body become circumambient to land and vice versa? Using a series of different visual material, the viewer will delve into what dislocation looks like for the Black body.

Talks

Alison Saar and Hank Willis Thomas in conversation with Hamza Walker will be hosted online by Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, United States on April 15, 2021

Alison Saar and Hank Willis Thomas unite for an online conversation with renowned curator and critic Hamza Walker in an evening exploring their work and the current cultural moment in art and history. Saar and Thomas are featured in the University of Oregon Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art’s exhibition, LOOK. Listen. Learn. Act., the visual component of the university’s annual Common Reading program. This year’s Common Reading program incorporates different bodies of work across multiple platforms, focusing on Blackness, Black experience, and dismantling racism. Collector Jordan Schnitzer, a long-time supporter of both artists, will offer a personal welcome.