What does it mean to be seen? To give others access to your truth? At the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, four Detroit-based artists seek to answer this question in Being Seen, a show evaluating the politics of visibility through paintings, photography, quilt-making, and prints. Delving into issues of power, vulnerability, and beauty, artists Joyce Jeffrey, Tia Nichols, April Anue Shipp, and Cara Marie Young present artworks in ranging levels of exposure that explore the underlying tensions between portraiture and societal representation.
The exhibition features photographs from Jeffrey’s 2010 Master’s thesis exhibition Knot Bad, which aimed to capture the beauty of Black women who assert their truths through their appearances in a society that seeks to police self-expression. Colorful quilt works by Shipp pay homage to historical figures such as legendary performer Pearl Mae Bailey, calling into question who is remembered and who is forgotten in mainstream historical narratives. Oil paintings by Young offer viewers traces of skin that blend into backgrounds, underscoring themes of access and privilege, while Nichols’s multimedia works celebrate everyday people and communities by casting them in a new light that is both monumental and intimate.
“The audience, viewers, or patrons of [institutions] aren’t always art appreciators, collectors, or artists themselves … a museum may be their only dose of art,” Nichols said in a July interview, adding that she “often creates for exposure. If all they see are a plethora of walls full of European expressions of art with figures of one pigmentation, how can the diverse demographics of our current society possibly relate?”
The last day of Being Seen falls on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 15— what would have been the civil rights leader and preacher’s 95th birthday. To celebrate King’s legacy, the museum will be hosting several special events including a ticketed prayer breakfast, a screening and discussion of Ava DuVernay’s historical drama Selma (2014), a virtual-reality exploration of King’s speeches, and hands-on family workshops with museum educators.
For the federal holiday, the museum will be open from 9am to 5pm. Visitors can also view two other exhibitions on display in the museum: Ruth E. Carter: Afrofuturism in Costume Design, a survey of the Academy Award-winning costume designer’s work, and And Still We Rise — a long-term exhibition spanning more than 20 galleries that offers a historical examination of African-American resistance and resilience.
