Cosmo Whyte Brings a Pixelated Past Into Full Focus

The Arts Club of Chicago presents The Mother’s Tongue, Pressed to the Grinding Stone, a solo exhibition by Jamaica-born, Los Angeles-based artist Cosmo Whyte, now on view through April 2. In a showcase of works across several mediums, Whyte finds clarity in the haze of memory, exploring the inescapable connection between the personal and collective through the idea of spectacle.

Using his later father’s architectural archives as a point of departure, Whyte interrogates the act of seeing: “What makes a witness? And what does it mean to have become one?” Uncovering new layers of meaning along the way, the artist employs a postmodernist approach to imagery, reworking photographs to reveal to alternative contexts.

Standouts include “4×4 Timing/Hush Now, Don’t Explain” (2023), a multi-fold steel sculpture where hand-painted beaded curtains reveal tender, black-and-white portraits; alongside the playful and tense “Agitation 2 – Wailer and the Griot” (2023), where heavy, pixelated plumes of smoke lay behind a lively, acrobatic scene, bringing place – as opposed to face – into full focus.

“In Whyte’s hands, the representations are neither ironic nor sentimental. Instead, they point the viewer toward both self reflection and the recognition of broader connections across geographies and generations.”

The Mother’s Tongue, Pressed to the Grinding Stone takes part in Panafrica Across Chicago, a citywide series of events and exhibitions that explore themes of freedom, solidarity and place through voices from Africa and the African diaspora.

The Arts Club of Chicago
201 E Ontario St,
Chicago, IL 60611