Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
February 18 – May 12, 2024
Installation of Yashua Klos, The Face On Mars, 2009, paper construction of woodblock prints on archival paper mounted on unstretched canvas in "Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage" on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, February 18 through May 12, 2024. Photograph © The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Will Michels, photographer.
Yashua Klos, Wardell Milan, and Kara Walker are featured in Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage, the first major museum exhibition devoted to exploring the breadth and complexity of Black identity and experiences in the United States through collage. Works by multiple generations of living artists examine concepts such as cultural hybridity, gender fluidity, historical memory, and notions of beauty and power.
By assembling pieces of paper, fabric, and repurposed materials, the artists create unified compositions that express the endless possibilities of Black-constructed narratives within a fragmented society. This groundbreaking exhibition brings attention to the richness of collage as an art form. Building upon the legacy of African American artists such as Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Faith Ringgold, and Betye Saar, contemporary artists make collages in an array of ways, from traditional cutting and pasting to creating works digitally.
Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage was organized by the Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN, and was presented there in 2023. To learn more about the exhibition, click here.