Curated by Charles Gaines
Edgar Arceneaux / Njideka Akunyili Crosby / Todd Gray / Lauren Halsey / Rodney McMillian / Gary Simmons / Cauleen Smith /
Henry Taylor / Elizabeth Webb
The work of the Los Angeles-based artists in this exhibition reflect on the lived experience of certain aspects of African American culture which includes diasporic Africans. The work poetically and politically addresses a variety of experiences that is part of the black experience which critiques the history of art; it calls up the constraints imposed by the mainstream/marginal binary that separates the experience of whites from that of blacks, and in addition normalizes one at the expense of the other. This exhibition addresses the cosmopolitan nature of American culture and at the same time expands the idea of what is possible in art with respect to cultural representation. Specifically, we realize that there are unique narratives that make up the diasporic African experience, and that these narratives, although different from the mainstream are very much integrated in the fabric of a larger and more inclusive mainstream narrative. We come to realize that the nuances of differences that we are used to when considering individual identities also exist on the cultural level, and that art is well equipped to deal with this but requires a rethinking of the history of representation in art in order to embrace this nuance on the level of culture. Although this is a narrative that reflects the interest of diasporic African culture – the exhibition features the focus and interests of Los Angeles based artists.
Charles Gaines
LA, 2021
Installation view, Pushing the Margins A Survey of LA Artists, Galleri Opdahl, Stavanger, Norway