Curatorial traditions and experimental innovations at the Brooklyn Museum, New York

"Grey Area (Brown Version)" (1993), by Fred Wilson

My recent visit to view the expansive art collections at Brooklyn Museum, located in the Prospect Park area of New York City, provided an interesting opportunity to peruse and critique a series of complex and engaging artistic and curatorial juxtapositions. On every level of this five storey building the vast collections of exhibits and their interpretation narratives were assembled to... Continue Reading →

March 22, 2017 2

Circa 1970, and beyond, at the Studio Museum in Harlem (New York)

One of the places designated as a 'must see!' during my recent trip to the United States was the Studio Museum in Harlem: a site first established in the iconic New York district in 1968 as a space for 'artists of colour' from the USA, the global African diasporas and Latinx heritage communities to (in the words of... Continue Reading →

February 28, 2017 3

Chris Ofili: Night and Day

"I’ve found that the night and twilight here enhances the imagination. In the city our relationship to the night is very particular because it’s always illuminated, but here it’s unlit, so you’re relying on the light of the moon and sensitivity of the eyes." - Chris Ofili (2010)* Chris Ofili: Night and Day was the... Continue Reading →

September 1, 2015 1

“American Policing: Lessons on Resistance” – Discussions at the Schomburg in New York

‘American Policing: Lessons on Resistance’ is the title of a panel discussion that took place at the Schomburg in New York on 18th February 2015 as a follow-up conversation to their recent town-hall-style debate on ‘American Policing: The War on Black Bodies’. The session featured wide-ranging commentary on issues related to police brutality, racial discrimination, ‘stop and frisk’/’stop... Continue Reading →

February 19, 2015 0

Debates about the “The War on Black Bodies,” situated in contrasting cultural spaces in New York and London

“How can we transform the ways in which identity is conceived so that identities do not emerge and function only through the oppression and subordination of other social identities?” – Elizabeth Grosz (2011). Source: Becoming Undone: Darwinian Reflections on Life, Politics, and Art (Grosz, 2011: 89) “The War on Black Bodies” (Part 1) – the... Continue Reading →