Displayed on the shores of this former shipping port, Black Atlantic is an exhibition inspired by the diaspora across the ocean that connects Africa with the Americas and Europe. Over the centuries, these transatlantic networks have led to complex hybrid cultures and identities like those of the five artists featured in Black Atlantic. Each commission suggests a unique creative approach towards crafting new identities and futures through the personal gestures of hand-made work, often in dialogue with the processes of large-scale fabrication. The artists have mined both global histories and personal experiences to create these compelling works, which are as inventive in form and materials as they are powerful in their themes.
Black Atlantic
Hugh Hayden, The Gulf Stream, 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Lisson Gallery.
Photo: Nicholas Knight, Courtesy of Public Art Fund, NY.
Hugh Hayden, The Gulf Stream, 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Lisson Gallery. Photo: Nicholas Knight, Courtesy of Public Art Fund, NY.
Kiyan Williams, Ruins of Empire, 2022. Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Nicholas Knight, Courtesy of Public Art Fund, NY.
Kiyan Williams, Ruins of Empire, 2022. Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Nicholas Knight, Courtesy of Public Art Fund, NY.
Leilah Babirye, Agali Awamu (Togetherness), 2022. Courtesy of the artist, Gordon Robichaux, NY, and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. Photo: Nicholas Knight, Courtesy of Public Art Fund, NY.
Leilah Babirye, Agali Awamu (Togetherness), 2022. Courtesy of the artist, Gordon Robichaux, NY, and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. Photo: Nicholas Knight, Courtesy of Public Art Fund, NY.
Tau Lewis, We pressed our bellies together and kicked our feet, we became something so alien that we no longer had natural predators, 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Night Gallery. Photo: Nicholas Knight, Courtesy of Public Art Fund, NY.
Tau Lewis, We pressed our bellies together and kicked our feet, we became something so alien that we no longer had natural predators, 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Night Gallery. Photo: Nicholas Knight, Courtesy of Public Art Fund, NY.
“The terrific range of project proposals we receive each year speaks to the mobile and porous disciplinary boundaries of contemporary art practice, and to the rich and inventive ways writers approach art today. They are alert to the urgent need to expand the conventions of art history and criticism with ideas from other discourses, such as black studies, transnational and diaspora studies, gender and women’s studies, and LGBT studies. The work of lesser known and overlooked artists and art communities continues to be mined, with writers articulating new ways to counter the striking imbalances of race, class and gender that continue to affect the arts and the culture industry.”