Rick Lowe, Black Wall Street Journey #5, 2021. Acrylic and paper collage on canvas, 108 x 192 in (274.3 x 487.7 cm). Image courtesy of Gagosian
Among the must see exhibits this summer, Gagosian’s group exhibition titled “Social Works”, curated by their new director Antwaun Sargent, examines the wider social landscape of Black identity. On view till 11 September at the gallery’s West 24th Street location in Chelsea, New York, this exhibition features the works by twelve leading Black artists who are actively engaged in social change. Sargent told the New York Times in a recent interview, “Given the last year of the pandemic and protest and the history in which Black artists operate, the work does more than just sit quietly on the wall. It really is about the social implications of what it means to be Black in this world and to move through this world and move through space and take space and create space and reimagine space.”
David Adjaye, Asaase, 2021. Rammed earth, variable dimensions. Photo by Natalie Parent
David Adjaye (b. 1966) is an award winning Ghanian-British architect. Adjaye founded his own practice in 2000, Adjaye Associates, which has studios in Accra, London, and New York. His firm has works ranging from private homes to civic buildings, bespoke furniture collections, and product design. In 2017, Adjaye was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and will be the recipient of 2021 RIBA Royal Gold Medal. His work Asaase in “Social Works” is Adjaye’s first large-scale autonomous sculpture. The maze-like sculpture leads into a conical vortex that references West African architecture.
Linda Good Bryant and Elizabeth Diller, Are we really that different?, 2021. Installation, variable dimensions. Photo by Natalie Parent
Linda Goode Bryant (b. 1949) has over 50 years of experience as an artist and gallerist. In 1974, Goode Bryant opened one of the first galleries, Just Above Midtown (JAM), dedicated to works by artists of color. After the gallery closed in 1986, Goode Bryant dedicated herself to filmmaking, directing the films Flag Wars (2003), Hurricane Teens (1998), and Can You See Me Now? (2006). In 2009, she founded the farming organization Project EATS to create sustainable food production for Black and Brown communities in New York City. For “Social Works” Goode Bryant collaborated with Elizabeth Diller to construct an operational farm along with a video in her installation, Are we really that different?. According to Gagosian’s website, this work examines the symbiotic relationships between humans and nature in the modern world.
Titus Kaphar, A bitter trade, 2020. Oil on canvas, 60 x 40 in (152.4 x 121.9 cm). Photo by Natalie Parent
Titus Kaphar (b. 1976), is a painter, sculptor, filmmaker, and installation artist, and one of two artists in the show represented by Gagosian. The New Haven, Connecticut based artist obtained an MFA from Yale in 2006. He is the recipient of numerous awards and grants including a 2018 MacArthur Fellowship, Art for Justice Fund grant in 2018, a Robert R. Rauschenberg Artist as Activist grant in 2016, and Creative Capital grant in 2015. According to the artist’s website Kapharstudio.com. Kaphar dismantles traditional Western representations of history to subvert them. His new painting, A bitter trade (2020) from his “Whitewash” series in “Social Works” represents his reframing of the past to understand its effects on the present. Kaphar and Gagosian agreed to donate the proceeds from the sale of Kaphar’s work to NXTHVN, stated in an Instagram post by Gagosian. The nonprofit organization NXTHVN was cofounded by Kaphar, Jason Price and Jonathan Brand in 2015, and provides fellowships, residencies and opportunities for professional development to artists and curators.
Rick Lowe, Black Wall Street Journey #5, 2021. Acrylic and paper collage on canvas, Installation view. Photo by Natalie Parent
Rick Lowe (b. 1961) is a Houston-based artist who has participated in exhibitions and community-based art projects over the past 20 years. He has exhibited worldwide from United States, Japan, Korea, and Germany to France. In 1993, Lowe founded the nonprofit organization Project Row Houses, an arts and cultural community in the historical Third Ward neighborhood of Houston. Lowe’s collaged canvases featured in “Social Works” pay tribute to the 1921 massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, destroying the Greenwood District popularly known as “Black Wall Street,”, the origin of the title for this series. The collaged layers on the canvases are created with one hundred dollar bills. In this piece, Lowe commemorates the resilience of the neighborhood’s survivors - who rebuilt the city, as described in Gagosian’s catalogue.
Theaster Gates, A Song for Frankie, 2017-21. 5,000 DJ records, DJ booth, and record player. Dimensions variable. Photo by Rob McKeever. Image courtesy of Gagosian.
Theaster Gates (b. 1973) focuses on space theory, land developments, sculptures and performances. The Chicago-based artist utilises interest in preservation and urban planning to redeem forgotten spaces to bring them life. He has exhibited and performed around the world. He won numerous awards including Nasher Prize for Sculpture in 2018 and the Légion d’Honneur in 2017. In 2010, Gates founded the Rebuild Foundation to regenerate neighborhoods, community art programs, and cultural developments in Chicago. Gates collaborated with the Rebuild Foundation to create his installation A Song for Frankie (2017-21) featured in “Social Works”. This work is dedicated to “the Godfather of House Music” DJ Frankie Knuckles, whose house music shaped the Black and queer music scene of the 1980s, as stated in Gagosian’s catalogue. Featured in the work are five thousand records from the DJ’s archive which are also being played in the gallery.
Carrie Mae Weems, The British Museum (detail), 2006-. Digital chromogenic print, image: 50 x 50 in (127 x 127 cm), sheet: 71.5 x 59.5 in (181.6 x 151.1 cm), edition 5 + 2 APs. Image courtesy of Gagosian.
Carrie Mae Weems (b. 1953) explores family relationships, cultural identity, sexism, class, political systems, and the consequences of power through her work. She uses a variety of mediums including photography, digital images, text, audio, film, fabric, and installations. Among the awards she’s received are the MacArthur “Genius” grant and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Weems photographs herself in front of expansive sites in her photographic series Roaming (2006) and Museums (2006-). The stately buildings are powerful institutions “that racialize, sexualize, and confine the human body,” according to Gagosian. In the photographs, Weems exudes a sense of calm that confronts the space with dignity. This theme is particularly potent in her work The British Museum, as Weems faces the building’s entrance referencing the power the museum holds over the histories stored within the institution.
Lauren Halsey, black history wall of respect (II), 2021. Vinyl, acrylic and mirror on wood, 19 7/8 x 96 1/8 x 48 inches (50.5 x 244.2 x 122.2 cm). Photo by Rob McKeever. Image courtesy of Gagosian.
Lauren Halsey (b. 1987) documents her neighborhood, South Central, in L.A. to preserve the ever-changing landscape. Halsey’s solo exhibitions include the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Banner Project (2021); David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles (2020); Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2019); and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2018). Inspired by architectural forms, Afrofuturism and funk, Halsey creates paneled boxes decorated in images reminiscent of signs from her neighborhood that she stacks together “like Lego bricks,” she described in an interview with Mabel Wilson for Gagosian. With these structures, Halsey confronts issues affecting people of color, queer populations, and the working class. One of her most striking structures in “Social Works,” is black history wall of respect (II) (2021), which memorializes important figures in Black history and confronts the missing histories in a larger narrative of American history.
By Natalie Parent
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