Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1501753
Emancipation Conversation: This summer, the north Texas art world embraces a welcome dialogue about racial justice, diversity, and tolerance. At the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, catch the finale of "Emancipation: The Unfinished Project of Liberation." This prescient show coincides with the 160th anniversary of the Emancipation P r o c l a m a t i o n ( t h r o u g h J u l y 9 ) . T h e C a r t e r, c o n t i n u i n g i t s t r a d i t i o n o f collaboration, taps seven contemporary B l a c k a r t i s t s f o r e x p a n s i v e installations, both recent works and c o m m i s s i o n s . Examining African- American identity and the unfinished equality for which the Civil War was fought, the visceral exhibit embraces works in mixed media, fabric, photography, and graphite on paper. The artists were asked to respond to a historic piece in The Carter's collection: John Quincy Adams Ward's dramatic Civil War-time bronze sculpture of an enslaved Black man bursting free from his shackles, The Freedman, 1863. Texas Artist of the Year Letitia Huckaby represents Fort Worth with her poetic photography on textiles spun around family and community. Huckaby says in the online video that accompanies the exhibition, "I'm really interested in looking at how the way life was in the past relates to how it is today, and whether things have changed or not." Also featured in "Emancipation" are installations by Sadie Barnette, Alfred Conteh, Maya Freelon, Hugh Hayden, Jeffrey Meris, and Sable Elyse Smith, as well as a timeline of seminal Black l e a d e r s , h i s t o r i c photographs, and ephemera from the Civil War era. Feminism and Family: A t t h e Dallas Museum of Art, an ongoing series on emerging talent shines the light on a significant D a l l a s n a t i v e i n "Concentrations 64: Ja'Tovia Gary, I Know It Was The OBSESSIONS. DECORATION. SALIENT FACTS. ART NOTES Blood" (through November 5). Recent works by this multidisciplinary artist/filmmaker at the DMA include a newly commissioned sculpture, a crimson neon sign with a feminist message, film sourced from Gary's own family archives, and paintings, all coming together in an intimate installation reminiscent of a domestic living room. Keep this artist, a Guggenheim Fellow, on your radar for her politically charged work and powerful Black feminist voice. Gary, still based in Dallas, is already in the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Studio Museum in Harlem collections. Celebrating South African Talent: While the retrospective for internationally known South African artist/filmmaker William Kentridge is now on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (through September 10), multiple generations of South African talents are showcased in Dallas at the African American Museum. The exhibition "If You Look Hard Enough, You Can See Our Future: Selections of Contemporary South African Art from the Nando's Art Collection" packs discoveries (through August 13). Dallas-based Laurie Ann Farrell, known for her role organizing Carrie Mae Weems' pandemic-era billboard project in DFW, curates, selecting works from the U.S.-based Nando's restaurant group's astounding 25,000-piece South African art holdings. Paintings, sculpture, photography, and works on paper spanning 1948 to 2020 convey the trajectory of a nation that has come out of Apartheid and is moving toward a new future. Catherine D. Anspon Letitia Huckaby's The Clotilda, 2022, at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art Above: Installation view of Ja'Tovia Gary's "Citational Ethics," Paula Cooper Gallery, NYC, 2020, now on view at the Dallas Museum of Art. Left: Zanele Muholi's Fisani, Parktown, 2016, at the African American Museum. PHOTO STEVEN PROBERT, COURTESY THE ARTIST AND PAULA COOPER GALLERY, NYC © ZANELE MUHOLI, COURTESY THE ARTIST AND YANCEY RICHARDSON, NYC © LETITIA HUCKABY, COURTESY THE ARTIST AND TALLEY DUNN GALLERY