O'Grady, Tworkov

Lorraine O'Grady and Jack Tworkov included in the exhibition Blackness in Abstraction curated by Adrienne Edwards, at Pace Gallery, New York.

Pace Gallery presents Blackness in Abstraction, an exhibition curated by Adrienne Edwards tracing the persistent presence of the color black in art, with a particular emphasis on monochromes, from the 1940s to today.

Blackness in Abstraction considers the use of black as a method, mode and material in works by twenty-nine artists who have explored the expressive and symbolic possibilities of black as a color. Featuring works—over a third of which are newly created—by an international and intergenerational group of artists, the exhibition explores blackness as a highly evocative and animating force in various approaches to abstract art. The exhibition looks at the role of the color black across a range of practices, spanning Geometric Abstraction, Minimalism and Conceptualism to its use in the present.

Blackness in Abstraction will look beyond painting to explore the ways that black abstract work exists in other media including sculpture, video, photography and installation, opening blackness beyond a purely optical dimension and positing its theatrical possibilities.

Intended to prompt a three-way exchange between artist, artwork and viewer, the assembly of works will raise questions about the meaning and function of the black art work. Leaving space for interpretation through unexpected and unintended reverberations between artists and objects, the exhibition will resist chronological emphasis to open and foster new lines of thought. Blackness in Abstraction artists include Terry Adkins, Jonathas de Andrade, Rasheed Araeen, Kevin Beasley, Sergio de Camargo, Kōji Enokura, Ellen Gallagher, Robert Irwin, Sui Jianguo, Rashid Johnson, Sol LeWitt, Glenn Ligon, Laura Lima, Turiya Magadlela, Steve McQueen, Ulrike Müller, Oscar Murillo, Wangechi Mutu, Louise Nevelson, Lorraine O’Grady, Adam Pendleton, Pope.L, Robert Rauschenberg, Ad Reinhardt, Fred Sandback, Jack Tworkov, Carrie Mae Weems, Jack Whitten, and Fred Wilson.