Virtual Town Hall: Elevating Black Lives | Presented by the Utah Museum of Fine Arts

Kehinde Wiley, Conspicuous Fraud Series #1 (Eminence), 2001. Oil on canvas, 72 1/2 x 72 1/2 in. The Studio Museum in Harlem; Museum purchase made possible by a gift from Anne Ehrenkranz  2002.10.14

Jan 13, 2021
8:00pm

Zoom and Facebook

Black Refractions

On Wednesday, January 13 at 8:00 pm EST (6:00 pm MST), join us for Virtual Town Hall: Elevating Black Lives presented by the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in celebration of the opening of the exhibition Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts at the University of Utah. Black Refractions is a major traveling exhibition comprised of over one hundred works from the Studio Museum's permanent collection by nearly eighty artists from the 1920s to the present.

Attend the online conversation to hear speakers Connie Choi, Associate Curator, Permanent Collection at The Studio Museum in Harlem, Meligha Garfield, Director of the Black Cultural Center at the University of Utah, Erika George, Director of the University of Utah Tanner Humanities Center, and Samuel D. Thurman Professor of Law at the S. J. Quinney College of Law. Moderated by Nubia Peña, Director, Utah Division of Multicultural Affairs, and Q&A to follow with Jorge Rojas, UMFA Director of Learning and Engagement. The conversation will explore Black identity, (in)visibility, and lived experience as tied to the works exhibited in Black Refractions.

Black Refractions will be on view at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts at the University of Utah from January 23, 2021–April 10, 2021.

Watch the conversation on Zoom or Facebook at the links below: 
Facebook Live: facebook.com/utahmca
Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86472725785

Virtual Town Hall: Elevating Black Lives is presented by the Utah Division of Multicultural Affairs, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, The Studio Museum in Harlem, the Black Cultural Center, the Tanner Humanities Center, and the Utah Division of Arts and Museums.

Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem is organized by the American Federation of Arts and The Studio Museum in Harlem. Major support provided by Art Bridges. Sponsorship for the national tour provided in part by PURE. Support for the accompanying publication provided by Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund. 

Black Refractions |
Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem

The Studio Museum in Harlem is partnering with The American Federation of Arts (AFA) to present Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem, a major traveling exhibition comprised of over one hundred works by nearly eighty artists from the 1920s to the present. The exhibition will be showing at the following institutions across the US:

The Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA (January 16 – April 14, 2019);

Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC (May 24 – August 18, 2019);

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, MI (September 13 – December 8, 2019);

Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA (January 17 – April 12, 2020);

Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT (January 23–April 11, 2021);

Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA (May 22–August 15, 2021)

The exhibition is accompanied by a new publication of the same title co-published by the American Federation of Arts and Rizzoli Electa. The richly illustrated volume includes essays by Connie H. Choi and Kellie Jones; entries by a range of writers, curators and scholars (among them Lauren Haynes, Ashley James, Oluremi C. Onabanjo, Larry Ossei-Mensah and Hallie Ringle) who contextualize the works and provide detailed commentary; and a conversation among Choi, Thelma Golden, and Jones that draws out themes and challenges in collecting and exhibiting modern and contemporary art by artists of African descent.

Artists in the exhibition include:
Derrick Adams, Terry Adkins, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Charles Alston, Benny Andrews, Romare Bearden, Dawoud Bey, McArthur Binion, Betty Blayton-Taylor, Chakaia Booker, Frank Bowling, Mark Bradford, Jordan Casteel, Elizabeth Catlett, LeRoy Clarke, Willie Cole, Eldzier Cortor, Noah Davis, Beauford Delaney, Thornton Dial, Leonardo Drew, Melvin Edwards, Meschac Gaba, Sam Gilliam, David Hammons, Lyle Ashton Harris, Maren Hassinger, Barkley L. Hendricks, Richard Hunt, Clementine Hunter, Juliana Huxtable, Steffani Jemison, Loïs Mailou Jones, Isaac Julien, Titus Kaphar, Seydou Keïta, Jacob Lawrence, Hughie Lee-Smith, Norman Lewis, Glenn Ligon, Kalup Linzy, Tom Lloyd, Whitfield Lovell, Alvin Loving, Kerry James Marshall, Julie Mehretu, Adia Millett, Wangechi Mutu, Kori Newkirk, Otobong Nkanga, Odili Donald Odita, Chris Ofili, Lorraine O’Grady, Jennifer Packer, Howardena Pindell, Robert Pruitt, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar, Jacolby Satterwhite, Malick Sidibé, Gary Simmons, Lorna Simpson, Shinique Smith, Henry Taylor, Alma Thomas, Hank Willis Thomas, Mickalene Thomas, Bob Thompson, Bill Traylor, James Van Der Zee, Nari Ward, Carrie Mae Weems, Stanley Whitney, Jack Whitten, Kehinde Wiley, William T. Williams, Fred Wilson, Hale Woodruff, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.