Geometries centers the ancient mathematical study as a point of artistic inquiry, exploring how artists have used lines, shapes, and the spaces between to convey emotion, express identity, or work through formal concerns.

Geometry helps us make sense of the world around us and the universe beyond. It works in tandem with our perception as we consider depth, volume, dimensionality, surface, measurement, distance, and structure. Whether rooted in rigorous mathematical reasoning or sacred knowledge, or reflecting the embodied experience of looking, geometry offers a range of formal, philosophical, and spiritual questions for artists to address. 

Some artists adopt the language of Western geometric abstraction, attempting to eliminate extraneousness from the composition in a quest for some essential truth. Others interrogate the supposed purity of geometry, illuminating connections to African artistic traditions or confronting modernism and the burdens of representation facing Black artists head-on.

Though geometry is often closely associated with abstraction, artists may also deploy it in service of new modes of figuration by deconstructing recognizable forms. As painter Al Loving said, “even a box can be a self-portrait.” When the formal essence of a composition is laid bare, a nose becomes a triangle, a head becomes a cube, time becomes a circle, love, a single line.

Whether conjuring figures from elemental building blocks or destabilizing perception with abstract compositions, artists make use of geometry as an organizational logic for the images they create. They translate the breadth of the study—grid-like city maps, West African textiles, patterned flowerheads, and sonic vibrations—into a shared visual vocabulary. Through that common language, artists impart meaning onto material, opening new interpretive avenues for viewers in turn.