Esteban Jefferson “May 25, 2020”

303 Gallery (555 W 21st St.)

This event has ended.

303 Gallery presents May 25, 2020, Esteban Jefferson’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. The exhibition’s title refers to the date of the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, and the beginning of a series of ongoing protests denouncing police brutality and racial injustice which immediately ensued in cities around the world. A life-long New Yorker, Jefferson’s latest works consider the related symbolism of flags and toppling of equestrian monuments in New York, through the lens of racial and colonial legacies. Through repeated visits to sites of protest, from small interventions like flags taped to a stop sign to large-scale vandalism of well-known colonialist monuments, Jefferson tracks the lifespan of the 2020 protests. On view will be three pairs of paintings made in the artist’s distinctive investigative style, contrasting meticulously rendered subjects with muted surroundings, as well as video work.