DAILY SERVING » GLYPHS: Acts of Inscription at Pitzer College Galleries

Three powerful women dressed in patterned sundresses, jewelry, and club-ready makeup are seated on a jumble of printed fabrics, fake flowers, and gold spray-painted fruit. Their pose is a familiar one, mimicking Edouard Manet’s scandalous—at the time—Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe (1862-3), except in this one all posers are clothed, female, black, and staring at me as though they were sussing me up—trying to discern my intention in looking at them and disturbing their plastic picnic. This is Mickalene Thomas’ Le dejeuner sur l’herbe: trois femmes noires (2010) and it is a perfect example of the focus of this show: the dialogue between existing images and the new or supplemental image archives being created by artists. Continue Reading »

Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art: GLYPHS: ACTS OF INSCRIPTION Social Activism and the Politics of the Archive

The phrase “art and social activism,” surprisingly not yet a category in the Art Genome Project, has gained considerable currency over the past several years, implying that artists of the current age have begun to self-consciously reassess the role that visual arts can play in evincing social change. In reality this relationship between art and social action has been strong for many decades. Today’s seemingly renewed awareness of art’s power to instigate social transformation provided the starting point for the exhibition Glyphs: Acts of Inscription. Continue Reading »