exhibitions
Call and Response Through August 7, 2022
Carrie Mae Weems: The Usual Suspects Through August 7, 2022
Organized by the Louisiana State University Museum of Art and curated by Courtney Taylor, “Carrie Mae Weems: The Usual Suspects” includes recent photographic and video works by the renowned artist questioning stereotypes that associate Black bodies with criminality.
Images from Weems’ series “All the Boys” and “The Usual Suspects” implicate these stereotypes in the deaths of Black men and women at the hands of police and confront the viewer with the fact of judicial inaction. Blocks of color obscuring faces point to the constructed nature of our notions of race and how these imagined concepts obscure humanity — here with very real and deadly outcomes. “People of a Darker Hue,” a meditative compilation of video, found footage, narration and performance, commemorates these deaths. Considered one of the most influential contemporary American artists, Carrie Mae Weems has investigated family relation- ships, cultural identity, sexism, class, political systems and the consequences of power. Determined as ever to enter the pic- ture — both literally and metaphorically — she has sustained an ongoing dialogue within contemporary discourse for over 30 years. During this time Weems has developed a complex body of art employing photographs, text, fabric, audio, digital images, installation and video.
As a visual response to “Carrie Mae Weems: The Usual Suspects,” this selection of works from the museum’s permanent collection considers the intersection of race and representation in the works of other African American artists.
Some works invite the viewer to interrogate myths and ste- reotypes about Black identity while others acknowledge other narratives about personal and collective aspects of power. Included are works by Sheila Pree Bright, Elizabeth Catlett, Michael Ray Charles and Kevin Cole.
Curator: Shawnya L. Harris, Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator of African American and African Diasporic Art
In-house Curator: Shawnya L. Harris, Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator of African American and African Diasporic Art
Sheila Pree Bright (American, b. 1967), “Donovan,” from the “Young American Series,” 2007. Chromogenic print, 39 1/2 × 29 1/2 inches. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; Gift of the Larry D. and Brenda A Thompson Collection of African American Art. GMOA 2016.123.
Carrie Mae Weems (American, b. 1953), “All the Boys (Blocked 3),” 2016. Archival pigment and silkscreened panel mounted on gesso board, 32 3/8 × 27 3/8 inches (each). Courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery.
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