Lorraine O’Grady: Both/And is the first retrospective of one of the most significant contemporary figures working in performance, conceptual, and feminist art. Lorraine O’Grady replaces either/or ways of thinking with the endless loop of “both/and,” challenging the fixed positions of self and other, here and there, now and then, all while reflecting on the poignancy of lives lived within dualistic frameworks. The artist addresses her own experience as a person marked by racial hybridity―her family histories connect the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, and the United States―who is nonetheless definitively a Black woman. Through her exploration of legacies of cultural interconnection and reciprocal influences, O’Grady sheds light on the ways Blackness has always existed at the heart of Western modernism.
Lorraine O’Grady: Both/And
- Institution
- Brooklyn Museum
- Grant Cycle
- Spring 2019
- Amount
- $100,000
- Type of Grant
- Exhibition Support

Lorraine O’Grady, The Faces of Mlle Bourgeoise Noire, 2020, digital sketch, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the Lorraine O’Grady Studio. © 2020 Lorraine O’Grady, Artists Rights Society, New York.

Lorraine O'Grady, Rivers, First Draft: The Woman in White east coconut and looks away from the action, 1982/2015. Digital chromogenic print from Kodachrome 35mm slides in 48 parts, 16 x 20 inches. Courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York. © Lorraine O'Grady/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Announcement Card 3 (Seated Palmate), 2020. From Announcement of a New Persona (Performances to Come!), 2020. Fujiflex print. Courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York.© Lorraine O’Grady/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Lorraine O'Grady (American, born 1934). Art Is . . . (Girl Pointing), 1983/2009. Chromogenic photograph in 40 parts, 20 × 16 in. Courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York.© Lorraine O’Grady/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
“Some company recently was interested in buying ‘my aura.’”
Andy Warhol