Lux et Veritas
Translated as “Light and Truth”, the latest major exhibition at the NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, explores not just the output of a generation of artists of colour, but the academic experiences that shaped their development.
Kehinde Wiley, Mickalene Thomas, Titus Kaphar, Torkwase Dyson — names you might know — are just a few of the 20+ exhibited artists that completed their Masters of Fine Art Degree at the Yale School of Art (@YaleSchoolofArt) . What you’ll discover from the extensive oral history wall texts is that not everything they learned came straight from the syllabus.
Their stories are poignant reminders that reiterating the benefits of cultural diversity is still very much a platitude seldom backed up in practice. Loren Holland was “surprised to discover that she was the only Black first-year painting student in her cohort”, and collectively these young artists had to counteract “the lack of diversity among the faculty by inviting artists, curators and writers of color as advisors and guest speakers”.
What’s also evident is that many close inter-personal relationships formed amongst these artists out of necessity, in order to maintain the influence of wider world views and avoid cultural assimilation as they attended what has historically been a white, extremely Americancentric institution.
Their result speaks for itself. And the NSU Curatorial team gets a bonus gold star for compiling and publishing the highly personal stories revealing the additional challenges the students faced while trying to find the strong artistic voices and powerfully individualistic work that is now on display. And, I expect, yet to come.
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Images 1 = Wangechi Mutu (@WangechiStudio)
Images 2 = MickaleneThomas (@MickaleneThomas) (L) + Wangechi Mutu (@WangechiStudio) (sculpture)
Image 3 = Kehinde Wiley (@kehindewiley)
Image 4 = Titus Kaphar
Image 5 = Wardell Milan (@wardell_milan) (L) + Abigail Deville (@victoriouspurple) (sculpture)
Image 6 = Loren Holland (@ArtandMischief)
Image 7 = Mike Cloud (@MikeCloudArtist) (L) + William Cordova (sculpture)
Image 8 = Shoshanna Weinberger (@ShoshannaWeinberger)
Lux et Veritas is at the NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, FL (@NSUArtMuseum) until 23 Oct