AGAINST DYSTOPIA, DIANE ROSENSTEIN GALLERY

ON VIEW AT DIANE ROSENSTEIN GALLERY September 14 - november 2, 2024

Ray Anthony Barrett, Ashanti Chaplin, Phoebe Collings-James, Cara Despain, Andrae Green, Margaret Griffith, Jane Chang Mi, Olivia “LIT LIV” Morgan, Esteban Ramon Perez & Adrienne Elise Tarver | Curated by nico w. okoro

Against Dystopia features artworks that inhabit a spectrum of anti-dystopian thought, from mobilizing conceptualism to overcome historic traumas and the precarity of the present, to envisioning future utopias against seemingly insurmountable odds. The exhibition is curated by nico w. okoro and includes ten international artists representing twelve cities across the United Kingdom, Jamaica, and all five regions of the United States. The drawings, installations, paintings, photographs, sculptures, and textiles on view are enriched by each artist’s distinct lived experience and actively resist inheritance of the status quo. Artworks are grouped into three thematic sections, each of which explores creative strategies of resistance and works against dystopia at all costs: field research, symbolic interactionism, and speculative fiction. 

Ray Anthony Barrett (Missouri), Ashanti Chaplin (Oklahoma), Cara Despain (Utah/Florida), and Jane Chang Mi (Hawaii/California) use field research to map histories of frontierism, settler colonialism, and land politics onto ecological and socioeconomic systems today. With a focus on listening to the land and sea to both unearth and atone for difficult truths, these artists name and dismantle dystopian practices on the path to reconciliation. Embracing an appreciation for both hyperlocal traditions and the tenets of global citizenship, each underscores our shared duty to ensuring ecocultural sustainability and Earth’s habitability for future generations.

While Margaret Griffith (California), Olivia Morgan (New York), and Adrienne Elise Tarver (New York) work through markedly different mediums and styles, they share a fearlessness in addressing ongoing tensions and questions surfaced amidst the political firestorm of 2020. Embracing tenets of symbolic interactionism, or the theory that individuals shape and are shaped by society through daily interactions and the co-creation of meaning from symbols, these artists remind us of the power of human connection to bridge difference. Each steers towards social cohesion by processing collective grief and the enduring impacts of the 2020 presidential election, the proliferation of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter Movement respectively. Whereas Morgan and Griffith subvert symbols that often polarize rather than unite us within physical space—such as fences, face masks, and smartphones—Tarver reaches into the past to pull forth reimagined symbols that speak to our spiritual interdependence. 

Phoebe Colling-James (United Kingdom), Andrae Green (Massachusetts/Jamaica) and Esteban Ramón Pérez (California) boldly envision alternative realities by using speculative fiction and symbolic allegory to sew threads of connection across time and space. Each resists linearity and subverts narrative tropes to instead materialize the fluid spiritual dimensions of lived experience. Through their layered ceramics, paintings, and sculptures, these artists mine the depths of their respective Jamaican/British, Jamaican/American, and Chicanx heritages to comment more broadly on social conditions today, prompting us to dream beyond what’s readily visible or knowable.

Against Dystopia is a far-reaching exhibition, both in terms of the diverse backgrounds and approaches of its featured artists, and the social, cultural, and geographic ecosystems those artists represent and critique. Presented on the eve of the 2024 presidential election, Against Dystopia transforms fear and anxiety surrounding the uncertainty of our shared future into a tangible site of hope—one where collective memory reminds us of our agency to enact change today, and rich cultural traditions empower us to imagine alternative futures. Of significance is the inclusion of artists who identify as multi hyphenates, playing numerous social roles within their communities, such as advocate, change agent, chef, documentarian, educator, father, filmmaker, mother, musician, oceanographer, researcher, and too many more to name. Against Dystopia opens concurrently with The Getty's Pacific Standard Time: Art x Science x LA, which similarly explores, “opportunities for civic dialogue around some of the most urgent problems of our time by exploring past and present connections between art and science.” By convening an international group of visionary artists to help initiate these dialogues, Against Dystopia prompts viewers to pursue deeper understanding of shared challenges and solutions, on both the micro and macro levels. 

AGAINST DYSTOPIA RESOURCE LIST

READING LIST

1. Susan Abulhawa, Against the Loveless World, 2021

2. Ray Anthony Barrett, Dispatches from the Western Wild, 2021

3. adrienne maree brown, Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation, 2021

4. Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower, 1993

5. Tanehesi Coates, The Message, 2024

6. T.J. Demos, Radical Futurisms, 2023

7. Natalie Diaz, Postcolonial Love Poem, 2020

8. Demian DinéYazhi´, WE LEFT THEM NOTHING, 2021

9. Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Survival is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde, 2024

10. Woody Guthrie, House of Earth, 2013

11. Epeli Hau‘ofa, We Are the Ocean: Selected Works, 2008

12. Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, 2015

13. Noor Hindi, Dear God. Dear Bones. Dear Yellow, 2022

14. Hannah Holmes, The Secret Life of Dust: From the Cosmos to the Kitchen Counter, the Big Consequences of Little Things, 2003

15. Robin D. G. Kelley, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, 2003

16. Diane Lutz, Deep History of Coconuts Decoded, 2011

17. Robert MacFarlane, Underland: A Deep Time Journey, 2019

18. Ms. Lilly McEachern, Painting Hope: Selected Works by Andrae Green, 2024

19. Hoodoo Sen Moise, Working Conjure: A Guide to Hoodoo Folk Magic, 2018

20. Rodney Morales, Hoʻi Hoʻi Hou: A Tribute to George Helm & Kimo Mitchell, 1984

21. Toni Morrison, Paradise, 2014

22. Mary Kawena Pukui, 'Ōlelo No'eau: Hawaiian Proverbs and Poetical Sayings, 1983

23. Frank Shyong, Column: Fences in Los Angeles Have Gotten Taller, Gone Horizontal, Redefining Neighborhood Life, 2024

24. Teresia Kieuea Teaiwa, Sweat and Salt Water, 2021

25. Haunani-Kay Trask, From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai‘i, 1999

26. Derek Walcott, Omeros, 1990

WATCH LIST

1. Ray Anthony Barrett, Go Tell It On The Mountain, Active Cultures, 2021

2. Ken Burns, The Dust Bowl, PBS, 2012

3. Ashanti Chaplin, Dust to Dirge, ArtNow 2023, Oklahoma Contemporary, 2023

4. Cara Despain, Carbon Paintings, Slow Burn, and Test of Faith, Vimeo, 2024

5. George Helm, Kaho`olawe Aloha `Aina, YouTube, 1977

PLAY LIST

1. Nina Chanel Abney, Jigsaw Puzzle, MoMA Design Store

2. Derrick Adams, TLRAR Black Unicorn Pool Floatie, The Last Resort Artist Retreat Shop

3. DARNstudio, G.O.A.T. The Art Game, Newark Museum of Art

4. Cara Despain, Plastocene Swimwear Line, 2022

5. Naima Green, Pur·suit, 2019

6. Adrienne Elise Tarver, Manifesting Paradise Tarot Deck

MIXTAPE

1. Pastor T.L. Barrett and The Youth for Christ Choir, Like A Ship (Without a Sail), 2017

2. Phoebe Collings-James, Soundcloud

3. Chick Corea, Mad Hatter Rhapsody, 1978

4. George Helm, A True Hawaiian, 1996

5. Bob Marley, One Drop, 1979

6. Aja Monet, When the Poems Do What They Do, 2023

7. Serafine 1369 and Young Nettle, Sounds 4 Survival: We Make A Way To Invent The Rhythm Through Versions Of Our Shared Name, Counterflows, 2021

8. Burning Spear, Marcus Garvey, 1975

CENTURY: 100 YEARS OF BLACK ART AT MAM, the MONTCLAIR ART MUSEUM

On View at The montclair art museum, February 9 - June 23, 2024

Century: 100 Years of Black Art at MAM surveys works by fifty-nine groundbreaking Black artists from MAM’s collection, offering vital perspectives and diverse approaches to modern and contemporary art. With focus on the depth, breadth, and variety of art by African Americans, Century explores art as a living, generative force in Black life, spanning generations. Century is organized around six major themes that highlight the diverse ideas, concerns, practices, and visions that emerge from this rich grouping of multi-dimensional artists. We explore the importance of Black Portraiture over the past hundred years and its central role in the project of crafting Black identities while subverting reductive, often racist, portrayals of Blackness. African Diasporic Consciousness brings together objects that work—both explicitly and implicitly—to transmit cultural values, practices, symbols, and philosophies that have persisted and thrived across vast distances from a shared homeland. Archival Memory considers the capacity of objects—constructed, found, or reimagined—to collectively document and preserve said consciousness. We also consider the languages of Abstraction that have been meaningful tools for conceptualizing both personal and collective expressions best communicated by form and color. Black Mythologies explores how artists use the power of myth and spiritual expression to access histories and memories, imagine possible futures, and mine the complex contours of Black life. Black Joy and Leisure celebrates the construction of unapologetically Black social spaces, where radical rest and unfettered leisure are expressed without inhibition.  From James Van Der Zee’s 1924 photograph Black Red Cross March, Harlem to this presentation of Century in 2024, MAM celebrates Black art as a dynamic force that recognizes and represents a variety of lived experiences— a force that heals, activates memory, reveals, and questions histories, illuminates the present moment, and serves as a source of pure pleasure. 

Featuring works by Emma Amos, Romare Howard Bearden, Dawoud Bey, Sanford Biggers, Camille Billops, Robert Blackburn, Chakaia Booker, Beverly Buchanan, Nanette Carter, Nick Cave, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Willie Cole, Adger Cowans, Roy Crosse, Lisa Corinne Davis, Roy De Carava, Beauford Delaney, Thornton Dial Sr., Lois Draper, William Edmondson, Melvin Edwards, Minnie Evans, Adama Delphine Fawundu, LaToya Ruby Fraizer, Herbert Gentry, Sam Gilliam, Todd Gray, Tomashi Jackson, Carmen Cartiness Johnson, Ben Jones, Lois Mailou Jones, Jacob Lawrence, Deana Lawson, Norman Wilfred Lewis, Whitfield Lovell, Alvin Loving, Julie Mehretu, Wardell Milan, Ambrose Rhapsody Murray, Gordon Parks, Janet Taylor Pickett, Howardena Pindell, Faith Ringgold, Deborah Roberts, Betye Saar, Joyce J. Scott, Danny Simmons Jr., Lorna Simpson, Mickalene Thomas, James Van Der Zee, Kara Walker, Bisa Washington, Carrie Mae Weems, Charles Wilbert White, Jack Whitten, Kehinde Wiley, Philemona Williamson, Deborah Willis, and Saya Woolfalk.

Embodied Knowledge (VIRTUAL)

This far-reaching exhibition explores the concept of embodied knowing, or that knowledge both resides in and can be conducted through the body. With a focus on art’s role in documenting complex processes of embodied knowing, the show celebrates the power of individual insights to deliver us to mass liberation. The fifty artists featured in Embodied Knowledge each uniquely consider: how ritual, performance and labor cultivate a deeper sense of self in relation to society; how radical intimacy subverts prescribed social roles and formations, welcoming more instinctual ways of knowing; and how direct observation and introspection catalyze the transfer of wisdom across time, space, and constructed borders. From experimental photo-based collages that explore layers of identity, to meditative works on paper and canvas that redefine portraiture beyond traditional approaches to figuration, Embodied Knowledge features dynamic works that span a variety of mediums and materials, testing their understood limits. Fueled by interrogation over declaration, Embodied Knowledge opens up meditative space in which to consider one’s own ways of knowing, and how those are imprinted upon by both internal and external forces.

Featuring works by Lexi Arrietta, Constance Brady, James Leonard Buxton, Brian Van Camerik, Lauren Cardenas, Julia Cella, gwen charles, Stanwyck Cromwell, Andrew Demirjian, Sophia DeJesus-Sabella, Lisa DiDonato, Vincent Dion, Tarah Douglas, Thompson Ekong (TSE), Shelley Feinerman, Matilda Forsburg, Julianna Foster, Andrae Green, Jonathan Virginia Green, Ash Hagerstrand, Margaret Hart, Ali Hval, Ryan Horton, Margaret Jacobs, Samantha Jensen, Katelyn Kopenhaver, Ryan Lewis, Miles Matis-Uzzo, William Maxen, Rosemary Meza-Desplas, Steven Montinar , Desiree Morales, Claudia Mullaney, Clara Nartey, Catherine Nelson, Tyna Ontko, Mesoma Onyeagba, Jeff Ostergren, Chiara Baima Poma, Kathryn Rusek, Danyang Song, Emma Safir, Remy Sosa, Ariana Stoll, Yige Tong, Zella Vanié, Qiaosen Yang and corrine m. yonce.

MADE VISIBLE: FREEDOM DREAMS AT CREATIVE ARTS WORKSHOP

Made Visible: Freedom Dreams, builds upon concepts and questions explored in Somewhere in Advance of Nowhere: Freedom Dreams in Contemporary Art, an exhibition guest curated by nico wheadon at The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art in February 2022. Drawing inspiration from Robin D.G. Kelley’s seminal book, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, it took up his provocation that, “without new visions we don’t know what to build, only what to knock down.” In this new iteration at CAW, wheadon continues to celebrate the role of artists in envisioning, shaping, and advancing sociocultural change, while focusing on visions, strategies, and solutions emanating from local communities of color.

In his site-specific installation, Y. Malik Jalal maps a constellation of life-sized images drawn from the family archives of long-time New Haven resident IfeMichelle Gardin. Activating both the exterior window galleries and interstitial spaces throughout the building, Jalal hopes to both, “serve and bring visibility to the legacy of home and placemaking of long-term African-American residents of the New Haven community.” Produced in dialogue with artist Allison Minto, founder of the Black New Haven Archive, Jalal’s research-based approach includes live and recorded oral history interviews, which will roll out in the space over time and explore home as a space for Black families to dream, grow and thrive.

In the lower level Hilles Gallery is a new body of work by sculptor Linda Vauters Mickens which offers a glimpse into her interpretations of the trials and tribulations of the African American experience. In her own words, “​​Reflections on my life as an African-American woman, mother, and artist have led me to the urgency of creating this work as both a warning and a celebration.” A new piece inspired by Jacob Lawrence's The Great Migration series is accompanied by a series of floor sculptures that spawned this new work’s creation. Each embodies a spirit of resilience despite ongoing injustices, and also expresses a hope for change across the Diaspora more broadly.

In the upper level Hilles Gallery, self-taught artist Jasmine Nikole offers a new series of paintings that embrace the uniqueness of our cultural heritage, celebrate diversity within Blackness, and prompt us to take pride in our individual and collective identities. In the artist's own words, freedom dreams are about, “being free to express ourselves authentically and without fear of judgment or censure,’” and, “being liberated from the restrictive norms and expectations of Western society.” By depicting us in our diversity, Nikole imagines a contemporary Garden of Eden where we can all live together in harmony. Her four panels are set atop an original, hand painted mural, and depict modern Black people returning to their ancestral roots.

Throughout the run of the exhibition, program partner Babz Rawls Ivy activates the upper level Hilles Gallery with a special project that seeks to return our communities to a state of connection, unity, intimacy, and care. For Rawls Ivy, dreams of a free future are rooted in our ability to reconnect and exhibit radical Black joy and love in the here and now. Embodying the practice of spiritual direction–or being with people as they attempt to deepen their relationship with the divine–Rawls Ivy will welcome visitors to sit with her, as they look at each other, hold hands and embrace on a bench painted with words of encouragement and affirmation. In her own words, “I want Black folks to come and be in communion with me. I want other folks to come and be in communion and get a taste of Black Love.”

Together, these artworks and projects invite meditations on what it means to work towards individual and collective liberation, while simultaneously working against forces of oppression and division. Resisting an overly utopian framework, they draw rich source materials from the everyday–the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Black American experience.

On view at Creative Arts Workshop, February 6 - March 18, 2023

SOMEWHERE IN ADVANCE OF NOWHERE: FREEDOM DREAMS IN CONTEMPORARY ART AT THE SAMUEL DORSKY MUSEUM OF ART

Somewhere in Advance of Nowhere: Freedom Dreams in Contemporary Art lauds the vital role of artists in dismantling broken systems, envisioning new shared realities, and building future alternatives. Drawing inspiration from Robin D.G. Kelley’s seminal book, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, the exhibition takes up his provocation that “without new visions we don't know what to build, only what to knock down.” From interactive, site-specific installations to meditative photographs, videos, and works on paper, the featured works pose a series of existential questions, including: What are we trying to change? What must be built and what must be knocked down to best advance our efforts? What wisdom can be borrowed from the past in charting new paths forward? And, How do we manifest bold futures envisioned by people of color amidst systemic imbalances in structural power?

In addition to contemplative space in which to consider the above, the eighteen artists and two artist collectives in this exhibition also offer tangible tools to help bridge the gaps between imagined utopias and the world as it actually is. The late Black poet Jayne Cortez described this site of convergence between dreams and reality as, “somewhere in advance of nowhere.” With its focus on unearthing strategies that can be shared between individuals fighting historical oppression and across social movements more broadly, Somewhere in Advance of Nowhere mobilizes our collective imagination to envision a freer society here and now. It prompts visitors to both radically and urgently orient themselves along a spectrum of liberatory practice, from individual expressions of agency to collective social action.

Featuring works by Derrick Adams, The Black School & Bryan Lee Jr., Phoebe Boswell, Jesse Chun, Abigail DeVille, Zachary Fabri, Ja’Tovia Gary, Golden, Kordae Jatafa Henry, Iyapo Repository, Jarrett Key, Yashua Klos, Miguel Luciano, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Zora J Murff, Jordan Nassar, Christie Neptune, Wanda Raimundi Ortiz, and Xaviera Simmons.

On View at The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, February 5 - April 10, 2022.

RED AT WELANCORA GALLERY

The color red has long embodied a paradoxical tension. It motivates yet cautions, loves yet rages and—all too often—marks both the giving of life and its mortal end. Despite its ubiquity red is, however, uniquely defined by its context. In this group exhibition curated by nico wheadon, twelve artists working across mediums share their distinct interpretations and applications of the color. Liberating it from its often binary existence, RED resists popular tropes and invites deep reflection on how red shows up in an increasingly fluid world. The exhibition was conceived in conversation with collector Merele Williams-Adkins and Welancora Gallery founder, Ivy N. Jones, and features curated pieces alongside newly-commissioned works.

Featuring works by Jaishri Abichandani, Felipe Baeza, Joseph A. Cuillier, III, Alteronce Gumby, Joe Hayes, III, Leslie Hewitt, Anders Jones, Eleisha Faith McCorkle, Devin N. Morris, Soull Ogun, Lina Puerta and Dana Robinson.

On View at Welancora Gallery June 12 - August 21, 2021.

HOME BODY AT SAPAR CONTEMPORARY

In Home Body, Elia Alba, Baseera Khan, Sola Olulode and Maya Varadaraj offer visions of personhood that transcend the labels, limits, and roles prescribed on Earth. Here, the body is not merely a vessel for participation in the material world. Instead, it is what poet Rupi Kaur describes as a colony of miracles—a home, or interior world, to return to and find refuge in. As we approach a year of learning to live with social distance and self quarantine, a reimagining of the body as sanctuary has never felt more timely or essential. With a focus on the nuances of cultural identity and gender expression, the exhibition explores embodiment as a site of performance and experimentation. A laboratory where the energetic relations between the material and the immaterial are in a constant state of fusion, fission and combustion. This collection of works—timeless yet concretely of this moment—tests the capacity of the body to resist the enduring pressures of capitalism, propagandism and sexism that have historically aimed to confine it. Viewers are dared to, instead, imagine the body as unbound, and gesture as a tool of radical resistance and communication.

On view at Sapar Contemporary February 19 - March 23, 2021.

TREACHEROUS WITH OLD MAGIC AT FUTURE FAIR

Drawing inspiration from Audre Lorde’s seminal poem, A Woman Speaks, this collection offers a fresh perspective on the role of artist (and womxn) as world builder, storyteller, and myth maker. The selected works are each part of a broader series, highlighting subtle nuances in representation and celebrating the iterative, experimental processes of identity formation. Exhibiting artists include Alisa Sikelianos-Carter, Amaryllis DeJesus Moleski, Andrea Chung, Joiri Minaya, Phoebe Boswell, Saya Woolfalk, tarah douglas and Zalika Azim.

On view at the Future Fair Holiday Market November 27 - December 18, 2020.

SHALLOW GRAVES AT RUSH ARTS GALLERY

In drawing from the archive and ephemera of collective memory, Shallow Graves bridges the historical record or trace with the ways we remember and render the history in its particularity. Nanna Debois Buhl, Eric J. Henderson, Meridith Nickie, Jaye Rhee, Ryan Roa and Benjamin Tiven reflect upon both private and public monuments and employ multidisciplinary approaches in surveying the methodologies of tribute. Shallow Graves repurposes the colonial footprint to define heritage as the amalgamation of the real and the imagined, and assert visual translation as a vital tool of biography. 

On view at Rush Arts Gallery April 2 -  May 29, 2010

BORDERLINE at Rush Arts Gallery