Antwaun Sargent Explores Black Social Practice in Gagosian Group Show
Featuring works by leading Black American artists.
For his first exhibition as Gagosian’s director, Antwaun Sargent envisions a more inclusive art world through diverse works by leading Black American artists. Entitled “Social Works,” the presentation features site-specific pieces by David Adjaye, Theaster Gates, Linda Goode Bryant, Rick Lowe, Titus Kaphar, Carrie Mae Weems and many others. The show was inspired by a decade-long of conversations between Sargent and the artists as these individuals riff on their Black identity and explore the nature of space while touching on socio-political issues such as justice and inequality.
One of the highlighted pieces in the show is a series of box sculptures by Lauren Halsey. The artist stacked a selection of mirrored cuboids on top each other, with each one featuring a portrait of historical Black figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Toni Morrison, Booker T. Washington, among others. Another notable work is Theaster Gates’s installation paying homage to the legendary DJ Frankie Knuckles, the “Godfather of House Music” whose music helped form the Black- and queer-led 1980s house music scene.
“‘Social Works’ considers the relationship between space—personal, public, institutional, and psychic—and Black social practice. With a wide range of material and theoretical approaches, the work on view is united by a conscious engagement with today’s cultural moment, in which numerous social factors have converged to produce a heightened urgency for Black artists to utilize space as a community-building tool and a means of empowerment,” said Gagosian in a statement.
Check out the installation views for “Social Works” above and then head to Gagosian’s website for further information. The exhibition is on view through August 13.
Elsewhere in art, Lee Quiñones highlights George Floyd’s murder in a solo conceptual exhibition entitled “Black and Blue.”
Gagosian
555 W 24th St.
New York, NY 10011
