NYAB Event - "After 1968: Contemporary Artists and the Civil Rights Legacy" Exhibition

This event has ended.
At The Bronx Museum of the Arts
Media: Painting, Other

During the span of twelve years, a series of events, later hailed as the Civil Rights Movement, would forever change the social and political course of America. The Bronx Museum of the Arts will present two sweeping exhibitions that chronicle both these pivotal moments in the nation’s history and its legacy surveyed through the works of young African-American artists.

As a complement to Road to Freedom, The Bronx Museum presents After 1968: Contemporary Artists and the Civil Rights Legacy. This smaller exhibition includes works from seven African-American, emerging artists and collectives—all born on or after 1968—who have created new work examining the heritage of the Civil Rights Movement and its affect on the lives of this new generation. They include Deborah Grant, Leslie Hewitt, Otabenga Jones and Associates, Adam Pendleton, Jefferson Pinder, Nadine Robinson and Hank Willis Thomas. Using the movement as inspiration, context or critique, these artists address their own personal understanding of race, identity, American violence, and political activism providing new perspectives on and discourse about this critical time in the history of the United States.

The artists’ diverse approaches include Deborah Grant’s 24 wood panels painted in red, collaged with images from the civil rights movement. By taking these images out of context and juxtaposing them, she creates a dialogue about the images, leading viewers to draw their own conclusions about the events. Hank Willis Thomas takes advertising images portraying African-Americans addressing the tension between commodity and race. Nadine Robinson offers a more personal and autobiographical approach through her sound pieces, emitting musical compositions of both black and white musical culture and often alluding to the 1963 hosings at Kelly Ingram Park by mixing sounds of rushing water with excerpts from protest speeches.

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