New Museum New York
“Carol Rama: Antibodies”
PRESS PREVIEW: 2. MAY 2017
Exhibition: April 26–September 10, 2017
Second Floor, 235 Bowery
New York, NY 10002
http://www.newmuseum.org/

This exhibition brings together a selection of works by British artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (b. 1977, London), a 2013 Turner Prize finalist and one of the most renowned painters of her generation. Yiadom-Boakye’s lush oil paintings embrace many of the conventions of historical European portraiture, but expand on that tradition by engaging fictional subjects who often serve as protagonists of the artist’s short stories as well. These imagined figures are almost always black, an attribute Yiadom-Boakye sees as both political and autobiographical, given her own West African heritage. Often immersed in indistinct, monochrome settings, her elegant characters come to life through the artist’s bold brushwork, appearing both cavalier and nonchalant, quotidian and otherworldly. In part because they inhabit neutral spaces, her subjects’ idle, private moments provoke the imagination of viewers and remain open to a range of narratives, memories, and interpretations. This exhibition is curated by Natalie Bell, Assistant Curator, and Massimiliano Gioni, Edlis Neeson Artistic Director, and is accompanied by a fully illustrated publication.

This exhibition marks the first New York museum presentation of work by Los Angeles–based artist Kaari Upson (b. 1972, San Bernardino, CA). Encompassing drawing, painting, sculpture, and video, Upson’s works track open-ended, circuitous narratives that weave elements of fantasy, physical and psychological trauma, and the often-fraught pursuit of an American ideal. A decade ago, Upson immersed herself in what became perhaps her best-known project, which began with her visit to the site of a burned-down house. For the prodigious The Larry Project (2005–ongoing), she unearthed a well of projected histories, images, and artifacts inspired by forgotten fragments from the abandoned personal archive of a man whom she had never met. Upson has continued this near-obsessive forensic approach in subsequent projects such as MMDP (My Mother Drinks Pepsi) (2014–ongoing), a series of videos and sculptures of fossil-like, aluminum-casted Pepsi cans based on the interdependent relationship between herself and her mother, and informed by commodity culture. For her exhibition at the New Museum, Upson will debut a new series of works that center around a family living in a tract house in Las Vegas. The series will explore an environment characterized by its architectural mirroring, yet haunted by the psychological tensions inherent in striving toward an imaginary perfect double. This exhibition is curated by Margot Norton, Associate Curator, and is accompanied by a fully illustrated publication.

A platform founded by Christopher Udemezue, RAGGA connects a community of queer Caribbean artists working across a wide range of disciplines—including visual art, fashion, and poetry—to explore how race, sexuality, gender, heritage, and history inform their work and their lives. A vibrant community deeply committed to education and grassroots organizing, RAGGA fosters a network and an extended family that makes space for solidarity, celebration, and expression. Their residency will explore Afro-Caribbean diasporic traditions, bringing together works by a group of artists who trace their own relationships to Caribbean history. The exhibition will include sculptures from Renée Stout’s Roots and Charms series, which nod to the hand-painted signs advertising elixirs and spiritual healing on the storefronts of shops in New Orleans and Washington D.C., and to the symbolic objects found within them. Tau Lewis’s foraged, ain’t free series portrays cacti, plants transplanted to radically different climates where they thrive nevertheless, a metaphor for the diasporic condition. Works in Paul Anthony Smith’s Grey Area series layer grainy silkscreened images of male acquaintances Smith encountered while back in his hometown in Jamaica for his aunt’s funeral, alongside images of a cemetery burial ground, suggesting a complex relationship to an island he left as a child.

Taking up Édouard Glissant’s claim that “the language of the Caribbean artist does not originate in the obsession with celebrating his inner self; this inner self is inseparable from the future evolution of his community [in which] he is his own ethnologist, historian, [and] linguist,” RAGGA NYC’s residency will also feature a number of public programs, including workshops exploring Afro-Caribbean spiritual traditions and an evening of performances and poetry by members of RAGGA.

This exhibition is curated by Sara O’Keeffe, Assistant Curator.