For Los Angeles-based culture lovers and those traveling to the City of Angels, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has just unveiled a new exhibit well worth checking out. Afro-Atlantic Histories is an exhibition that traces the transatlantic slave trade and its legacies in the African diaspora.
Afro-Atlantic Histories features works produced in Africa, Europe, and the Americas. The exhibit reexamines the histories and histories of slavery, resilience, and the struggle for liberation. Comprised of more than 100 works of art, the exhibition consists of six thematic sections spanning four centuries of history.
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Afro-Atlantic Histories juxtaposes works to present evolving perspectives across time and geography through various mediums of artistic expression. The exhibit features paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, photography, time-based media, and ephemera. Visitors can view everything from historical paintings by Frans Post and Édouard Antoine Renard to contemporary works by Kerry James Marshall, Alison Saar, Hank Willis Thomas, and Kara Walker, among others.
Rita González, Terri and Michael Smooke Curator and Head of the Contemporary Art Department at LACMA, shared with Forbes, “the exhibition’s ambition is to diversify the art historical canon by highlighting the power of art made by Africans and their descendants in the Americas. This is by no means a task that can be accomplished in an exhibition.”
The exhibition first debuted in 2018 at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil, with more than 400 works of art. Now, Afro-Atlantic Histories is touring the US at museums including LACMA, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), the National Gallery of Art, and the Dallas Museum of Art.
This exhibition is co-curated by Rita González and José Luis Blondet, Curator of Special Initiatives, Contemporary Art.
Opening on December 11, LACMA will host the Afro-Atlantic Stories exhibition through September 10, 2023.
The vast culture featured in the exhibition, while not all-encompassing, affirms that Africa is everywhere.
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