Mining the Archive is an exhibition featuring photo collages made from a variety of archives by nine African American artists. The artworks in this exhibition primarily question ideas around identity, memory, beauty, and history. This exhibition is on view through July 16, 2021, at Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York.
Nine artists are participating in this exhibition include Sadie Barnette, Alanna Fields, Todd Gray, Lyle Ashton Harris, Leslie Hewitt, Dionne Lee, Wardell Milan, Deborah Roberts, and Mickalene Thomas. This exhibition is co-curated with Racquel Chevremontand.
Deborah Roberts, Big girl now, 2021. Mixed media on paper, 44 x 32 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Vielmetter Los Angeles. https://www.yanceyrichardson.com/
The artworks on display reflect on the intertwined relationship between the personal and the political and its manifestation in the medium. According to the press release, the artists dig their inspiration from archive sources, such as “vernacular photography, personal archives, iconic photographs, popular magazines, vintage calendars, and the internet”. “Through the fragmentation, deconstruction, juxtaposition, and layering of these media”, the artists transform these sources into remarkable artworks related to “the fluidity of identity and revealing culture”.
Mickalene Thomas, Jet Blue #20, 2021. Color photograph, mixed media paper, acrylic paint, rhinestones, Swarovski crystal fabric, fiberglass mesh. 59 x 46 1/4 inches. © Mickalene Thomas. https://www.yanceyrichardson.com/
Mickalene Thomas’s Jet Blue #20 is one of the artworks on view. This collage depicts a Black woman lying on the bed and looking at a mirror, a piece photo cut of a trellis window, and women’s legs. Through her work, she proposes questions around Black identity, femininity, sexuality, and power. Thomas created this photo collage from “the nudes featured in the monthly calendars of Jet, a mid- 20th-century magazine which sought to promote the beauty, strength, and self-reliance of African American women while also chronicling the civil rights movement”.
Mining the Archive is a notable exhibition to be visited and looked at. It represents the way contemporary arts artistically engage in social and political issues, especially about Black identity and power.
The visitor can come to this exhibition only with an appointment before in Yancey Richardson Gallery’s website.
Installation view of Mining the Archive at Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York. https://www.yanceyrichardson.com/