Grief and Grievance: The Art of Mourning in America

While some museums are closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Apollo’s usual weekly pick of exhibitions will include shows at institutions that are currently open as well as digital projects providing virtual access to art and culture.

The final project of the late curator Okwui Enwezor, this exhibition brings together work by 37 contemporary artists to explore the act of mourning in response to racial violence in the US. On view at the New Museum in New York (17 February–6 June), the display spans a variety of mediums – from painting and sculpture to video, performance, sound and photography – and a number of generations; early works by Jack Whitten and Daniel LaRue Johnson from the 1960s, bearing witness to the Civil Rights Movement, are displayed alongside recent pieces by artists such as Rashid Johnson and Kerry James Marshall. Find out more from the New Museum’s website.

Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary here

Birmingham (1964), Jack Whitten. Courtesy the Jack Whitten Estate and Hauser & Wirth; © Jack Whitten Estate

Antoine’s Organ (2016), Rashid Johnson. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth; © Rashid Johnson

8345 Nights (2020), Sable Elyse Smith. Courtesy the artist, JTT, New York, and Carlos/Ishikawa, London

Untitled (policeman) (2015), Kerry James Marshall. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; © Kerry James Marshall