Spanning five decades, this expansive exhibition brings together seminal works by artists such as Gerald Williams, Wadsworth Jarrell, Sherman Beck, Jeff Donaldson, and Omar Lama, alongside striking photographic pieces from the Kavi Gupta archive by James P. Ball, James Van Der Zee, and Carl Van Vechten. Through their distinctive practices, these artists chronicle Black cultural and political histories, asserting image-making as a powerful vehicle for storytelling, resistance, and identity formation.

Working across mediums including photography, painting, and print, the exhibition explores how visual expression can serve both as a cultural archive and a radical tool for liberation. The works on view echo across generations, revealing how formal experimentation and social engagement are interwoven in the ongoing effort to reclaim and redefine representations of Black experience. Each piece becomes a lens into the artist’s vision of a more just and self-determined future.

Together, the works form a dynamic, intergenerational dialogue that honors the past while imagining the possibilities of the future. This presentation not only celebrates the enduring impact of Black artists on contemporary visual culture, but also underscores their pivotal role in shaping a visual language rooted in empowerment, memory, and collective liberation.