From Now: A Collection in Context is a dynamic, shifting installation of thematic exchanges drawn entirely from the Studio Museum in Harlem’s collection and installed throughout the building. Featuring a call-and-response of regular rotations of works, the exhibition is organized in sections that will unfold and evolve over the course of the year. Altogether, the installation presents a plurality of voices and explores motifs that have preoccupied artists of African descent across generations.

With works from the nineteenth century appearing alongside those of the present, From Now demonstrates the myriad ways artworks from disparate times, locations, and genres—and the artists who make them—can be in dialogue. Works that have rarely, if ever, been on view are displayed with those both newly acquired and long synonymous with the institution. The exhibition thus follows in the lineage of past collection shows committed to revealing the many perspectives, identities, and forms of art making by Black artists. 

Although the Studio Museum was initially founded in 1968 as a non-collecting institution, our community of artists quickly recognized the need for the Museum to collect, steward, and preserve the work of Black artists. The collection now comprises thousands of objects made by over eight hundred artists working across all media, attesting to the vitality of Black culture and the significance of the Museum’s mission. From Now is a tribute to these early, monumental efforts to establish and build a collection. Though only a fraction of works in our care will be on view, the exhibition is also an invitation for current and future engagement with the living history and limitless possibilities of works by artists of African descent.

Artists in the initial display of From Now include Emma Amos, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Romare Bearden, Dawoud Bey, Sanford Biggers,Kwame Brathwaite, Jordan Casteel, Elizabeth Catlett, Dana C. Chandler Jr., Barbara Chase-Riboud, Karon Davis, Roy DeCarava, Beauford Delaney, Leonardo Drew, Melvin Edwards, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Nikita Gale, Sam Gilliam, Lauren Halsey, Allison Janae Hamilton, David Hammons, Lyle Ashton Harris, Maren Hassinger, Barkley L. Hendricks, Juliana Huxtable, Jennie C. Jones, Isaac Julien, Titus Kaphar, Seydou Keïta, Jacob Lawrence, Deana Lawson, Simone Leigh, Ralph Lemon, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall, Wangechi Mutu, Senga Nengudi, Kori Newkirk, Chris Ofili, Lorraine O’Grady, Jennifer Packer, Gordon Parks, Rosana Paulino, Elle Pérez, Pope.L, Faith Ringgold, Deborah Roberts, Alison Saar, Betye Saar, Raymond Saunders, Malick Sidibé, Lorna Simpson, Ming Smith, Martine Syms, Henry Taylor, Texas Isaiah, Alma Thomas, Hank Willis Thomas, James Van Der Zee, Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems, Deborah Willis, William T. Williams, Fred Wilson, Stanley Whitney, Jack Whitten, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, and many more.

From Now: A Collection in Context is organized by the Studio Museum’s Curatorial Department: Connie H. Choi, Adria Gunter, Yelena Keller, Jayson Overby, Kiki Teshome, and former colleague Habiba Hopson, with Maya Davis, Simon Ghebreyesus, Abigail Gordon, Cam McEwen, Taylor Ndiaye, and Maria Wilson.

A new collection handbook augments the installation—Meaning Matter Memory: Selections from the Studio Museum in Harlem Collection, which highlights works by more than two hundred and sixty artists, including Derrick Adams, Nick Cave, Samuel Fosso, Theaster Gates, Cy Gavin, Arthur Jafa, Julie Mehretu, Martin Puryear, Augusta Savage, and Tschabalala Self, among many more. Published by Phaidon and designed by WeShouldDoItAll, the handbook—the first on the Museum’s collection in fifteen years—also features new texts by more than one hundred contributors and illuminates the impact the Studio Museum’s collection has made on art history and the broader cultural landscape.