Solomon R. Guggenheim, New York
Three Decades of Photography and Video at Guggenheim Museum is the first major New York museum retrospective dedicated to Carrie Mae Weems.
Acclaimed as one of the most eloquent and respected interpreters of African American experiences, over the past thirty years Weems has used her art to bring to light the ignored or erased experiences of marginalised people.
Featuring more than 120 works — primarily photographs, but also texts, videos, and an audio recording — as well as a range of related educational programs, this comprehensive survey offers an opportunity to experience the full breadth of the artist’s oeuvre and gain new insight into her practice.
The work of Carrie Mae Weems, celebrated with numerous awards and honors, invites contemplation of issues surrounding race, gender, and class inequality. Weems often appropriates words and images, re-presenting them to viewers as biting reminders of the persistence of bigoted attitudes in the United States.
A yearning to investigate the underlying causes and effects of racism, slavery, and imperialism has spurred Weems to travel widely throughout the United States, Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean.
The exhibition, accompanied by an illustrated catalogue, published by Yale University Press, has been organized by the Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville) and curated by Kathryn Delmez.
Born in Portland, Oregon in 1953, Carrie Mae Weems earned an MFA from the University of California, San Diego in 1984. Weems has been featured in solo exhibitions organised by institutions including the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (1991); New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (1991); National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC (1993); Museum of Modern Art, New York (1995); Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris, New York (1998); Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA (2000); and Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo, Seville (2010). Weems’s work has also been included in several important international exhibitions, including the Whitney Biennial (1991); Black Male, Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1994); 2nd Johannesburg Biennale, Africus Institute of Contemporary Art, Johannesburg, South Africa (1997); Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self, International Center of Photography, New York (2003); Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2010); La Triennale, Intense Proximity, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012), among many others.
- Artists:
Carrie Mae Weems - Open:
Friday, 24 January 2014 - Close:
Wednesday, 14 May 2014 - Address:
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 5th Avenue (at 89th Street), Upper East Side, Manhattan - Mail:
visitorinfo@guggenheim.org - Phone:
(212) 423-3618 - Web:
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum - Opening hour:
Sun – Wed, Fri | 10 am – 5:45 pm; Sat | 10 am – 7:45 pm - Closing day:
Thursday - Admission:
$22 adults, $18 seniors and students; Saturdays 5:45 pm – 7:45 pm: Pay-what-you-wish - Photo credits:
1. Carrie Mae Weems: A Broad and Expansive Sky—Ancient Rome (from Roaming) (Detail), 2006 Chromogenic print, 73 x 61 inches (185.4 x 154.9 cm) Private collection, Portland, Oregon; 2. Afro-Chic (Detail), 2010 Digital color video, with sound, 5 min., 30 sec. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; 3. Untitled (Man and mirror) (from Kitchen Table Series) (Detail), 1990 Gelatin silver print, 27 1/4 x 27 1/4 inches (69.2 x 69.2 cm) Collection of Eric and Liz Lefkofsky, promised gift to The Art Institute of Chicago © Carrie Mae Weems Photo: © The Art Institute of Chicago.
