Allied with Power: African and African Diaspora Art from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection In Miami

Allied with Power: African and African Diaspora Art from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection celebrates their most recent acquisitions, which consists of a sizable selection of international African and African Diaspora artists. Inspired by his upbringing in a number of Latin American countries, Pérez began collecting the work of Cuban and Afro-Latino artists several years ago. Recently he has expanded that focus to include artists of the full African diaspora. Allied with Power shows the result of these years of dedicated effort and exploration.

The exhibition highlights artists whose works embody the possibilities and complexities of our contemporary moment. Allied with Power showcases a wide range of practices and thematics, including abstraction, representation, politics, spirituality, and race. Collapsing national borders, the artists in the exhibition ally with power, representing a kaleidoscope of voices that declare their authority.

The exhibition includes works by Igshaan Adams, Juan Carlos Alom, Firelei Báez, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Kudzanai Chiurai, Jonathas de Andrade, Edouard Duval-Carrié, Tomás Esson, Genevieve Gaignard, Sam Gilliam, David Goldblatt, Sonia Gomes, Nicholas Hlobo, Pieter Hugo, Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, Rashid Johnson, Isaac Julien, Kiluanji Kia Henda, David Koloane, Guido Llinás, Arjan Martins, Misheck Masamvu, Manuel Mendive, Zanele Muholi, Christopher Myers, Odili Donald Odita, Naudline Pierre, Robin Rhode, Deborah Roberts, Chéri Samba, Yinka Shonibare, Elias Sime, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Mickalene Thomas, Guy Tillim, Kara Walker, Stanley Whitney, Sue Williamson, and Portia Zvavahera.

Allied with Power: African and African Diaspora Art is on view through summer 2021 @ Pérez Art Museum Miami 1103 Biscayne Blvd.

The Truth is Not in the Mirror

Michael Corridore, Untitled 13, from the Angry Black Snake series, Courtesy of a New York Collector

Photography as a medium has always been actively concerned with describing identity. While a portrait is typically an artistic representation of a person where verisimilitude is the goal, here the inquiry is questioned and expanded. Rather than employing a camera to create an objective document, the artists in this exhibition are often involved in constructing narrative sequences that pose questions with open-ended outcomes. As the title, The Truth is Not in the Mirror... suggests, photography has the power to imply, construct, and/or deny a narrative. Many of the photographers are contemporary storytellers and, in this sense, their work reflects facets of our ever-changing precepts about family, identity, truth and fiction.  Artists include, in summary,  Michael Corridore, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Andy Freeberg, Lee Friedlander, David Hockney, Graham Miller, Martin Parr, The Sartorialist, Larry Sultan and Mickalene Thomas. The Truth is Not in the Mirror, Photography and a Constructed Identity is on view at the Haggerty Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin until May 22, 2011. www.marquette.edu/haggerty