Collection in Context: The Stoop
The artists in this Collection in Context explore the stoop as a space that blurs public and private life, detailing how the stoop can be a site where Black life, labor, and love spill into public view. In Harlem and beyond, the stoop has long been more than simply one part of a building, having evolved into a defining element of New York City’s urban landscape. This ubiquitous feature is extended and replicated in the Studio Museum’s new home, serving as a place for connecting, learning, and gathering.
Stephanie Weaver, Hallelujah, 1971. Oil on board, 72 3/4 × 48 in. Gift of the artist 1972.7. Photo: Zalika Azim
Stephanie Weaver’s Hallelujah (1971) bursts with movement and joy. Born in Trinidad, Weaver draws from Yoruba spiritual traditions and Harlem’s vibrant church life to create a scene of people dancing, praising, and reflecting together. In this way, Hallelujah evokes the metaphorical stoop of the church’s chancel, a place where spirit and community coincide.
Carrie Mae Weems, Untitled (Black Love), 1999/2001. 3 gelatin silver prints, each 15 × 15 in. Museum purchase with funds provided by the acquisition committee 2002.20.1. Courtesy the artist and Gladstone Gallery. Photo: John Berens
Carrie Mae Weems’s Untitled (Black Love) (1999/2001) shows a couple meeting and embracing on the front porch, seen from inside a darkened home. The triptych evokes a film still depicting the relief of being alone together after time apart, and the familiarity of welcoming a loved one home, a scene that has unfolded on the stoop for generations.
Roy Decarava, Lingerie, 1950. Gelatin silver print, 8 3/4 × 12 3/4 in. Gift of Wendy Decarava and Laura Decarava, New York 2006.12.2. © The Estate of Roy Decarava. Photo: John Berens
In Lingerie (1950), Roy DeCarava photographs children on stoops and fire escapes, with their bodies arranged like clock hands across the frame. Born and raised in Harlem, DeCarava documented city scenes such as this with care and devotion. His richly contrasted images are loving portraits of Black life within public space.
Jacob Mason-Macklin, Nirvana’s Beneath the Pavement, 2022. Oil On Linen, 60 × 72 In. Museum purchase with funds provided by the acquisition committee and The Ed Bradley Family Foundation 2023.31.1. Courtesy the artist. Photo: John Berens
In Nirvana’s Beneath the Pavement (2022), Jacob Mason-Macklin paints a busy Harlem sidewalk where figures convene, cross paths, or turn away. Made during his time in the Museum’s Artist-in-Residence program, the painting examines how Black people move through public space—connected, surveilled, and, sometimes, resisting visibility.
Dave Mckenzie, We Shall Overcome, 2004. Dvd, TRT: 05:44 minutes. Edition of 4, 1 Ap. Courtesy the artist and Vielmetter Los Angeles
Also made during his time in residence at the Studio Museum, Dave McKenzie’s We Shall Overcome (2004) documents the artist walking down 125th Street wearing a Bill Clinton mask. People stare, laugh, or react with confusion. Prompted by an article questioning Clinton’s presence in the neighborhood, where he opened his post-presidency office, McKenzie used his body to question how we see ourselves in elected figures and what communities expect from those who claim to represent them.
Nona Faustine, From Her Body Sprang Their Greatest Wealth, 2013. Archival pigment print, 30 × 40 in. Museum purchase with funds provided by the acquisition committee 2016.7 © 2025 The Estate Of Nona Faustine. Courtesy The Estate of Nona Faustine and Higher Pictures. Photo: John Berens
In From Her Body Sprang Their Greatest Wealth (2013), Nona Faustine stands nude at a former slave market on Wall Street in downtown Manhattan. Her gaze is steady, her stance firm and unflinching, her body a claim to a buried history. Like a stoop, this public threshold once shaped the flow of people and goods, in this case through the buying and selling of Black bodies. Throughout her career until her passing in 2025, Faustine honored Black women and their right to be seen in public space.
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, 5 pm Harlem, 2010. Pastel on paper, 16 1/2 × 11 5/8 in. Gift of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York 2011.14.8 © Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Courtesy the artist, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York and Corvi-Mora, London. Photo: John Berens
5 pm Harlem (2010) pauses on a quiet moment of conversation between neighbors meeting on the street. Unlike Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s oil paintings, this pastel is part of a series that anchors real people observed in real time. Yiadom-Boakye portrays the ease of these neighborly moments that often unfold in public without spectacle.