Tschabalala Self is one of the most celebrated figurative artists of her generation. Her distinctive paintings address the realities of contemporary Black life and combine fabric collage with exuberant paint handling. These compositions, conceived by the artist, create environments in which her two-dimensional works live and breathe. The works exist within liminal spaces that aim to speak to the psychological, emotional, and spiritual aspects of identity.

Discussing Black life and its crucial role in understanding global histories of colonialism and social and racial injustice, this installation is a newly commissioned response to the solo exhibitions of Melvin Edwards and Tuli Mekondjo. The response operates as a concise but poignant comment on the subject matters that Edwards and Mekondjo both convey: the material and theoretical conditions of Black life on both the African and American continents; the interconnected heritages that lay bare the colonial plunder and transatlantic slave trade of previous centuries; and the civil rights movement and its legacies, brought to the fore in recent years through the global Black Lives Matter movement.

Biography

Tschabalala Self (*1990, Harlem, New York) lives and works in the Hudson Valley, New York. Self is an artist who has built a singular style from the syncretic use of painting, printmaking, and sculpture to explore ideas surrounding the Black body. She constructs depictions—predominantly of women—using a combination of sewn, printed, and painted materials, traversing various artistic and craft traditions. The formal and conceptual aspects of Self’s work seek to expand her critical inquiry into selfhood and human flourishing.