Kambui Olujimi: North Star is an immersive exhibition that features Kambui Olujimi’s inquiry into the liberatory possibilities of weightlessness, a concept he has explored since 2019 as an alternative to the structuring forces of anti-Black racism. Olujimi’s projects implicate viewers in reimagining what is possible, often through elements drawn from history and everyday life.
North Star brings together a selection of large-scale watercolor and ink paintings, a site-specific mural, a film, and a new audiovisual installation. These works collectively imagine what new relationships we might chart between our bodies, the self, the planet, and the universe once deeply entrenched forces are destabilized and replaced by boundlessness and possibility.
“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.”
Pradeep Dalal, Program Director, The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant