DEBORAH ROBERTS, “When you see me,” 2019 (mixed media and collage on canvas). | Dallas Museum of Art, TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art Fund, 2020.20. © Deborah Roberts. Courtesy the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and New York
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions
A GROUP OF SEVEN BOYS dressed in sweaters, collared shirts, and dress pants strides across the canvas in “When you see me” (2019), a large-scale collage painting by Deborah Roberts. The artist lives and works in Austin, Texas, and her practice focuses on perceptions of Black girls and boys. For many, her subjects don’t read as friends walking down the street together, the promising youth of America, rather they are viewed as a threat, despite their young age and innocuous appearance and demeanor.
Roberts’s work was acquired by the Dallas Museum of Art in 2020 and inspired the title for “When You See Me: Visibility in Contemporary Art/History,” a collection exhibition currently on view at the museum. The show considers “invisibility, hypervisibility, the desire to be seen, and the right to be private,” primarily through the lens of groups historically underrepresented and excluded from art history: artists of color, women artists, and queer artists.
Nearly 60 works by 50 artists working in a range of mediums are featured. Many of the selections are recent acquisitions. The diverse, intergenerational slate of participating artists includes Michael Armitage, Mark Bradford, Garrett Bradley, Anthony Cudahy, Theaster Gates, David Hammons, Sky Hopinka, Rashid Johnson, Rachel Jones, Simone Leigh, Wangari Mathenge, Senga Nengudi, Noah Purifoy (1917-2004), Tavares Strachan, Nari Ward, Charles White (1918-1979), David Wojnarowicz (1954-1992), and potter David Drake (1800-1865), among others. CT
“When You See Me: Visibility in Contemporary Art/History” is on view at the Dallas Museum of Art in Dallas, Texas, from April 7, 2024-April 13, 2025. The exhibition is curated by the museum’s contemporary art department: Anna Katherine Brodbeck, Vivian Li, Ade Omotosho, and Veronica Myers
Installation view of “When You See Me: Visibility in Contemporary Art/History,” Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, 2024-25). Shown, At right, SIMONE LEIGH, “Cupboard,” 2022 (bronze with gold patina). | Courtesy Dallas Museum of Art
Installation view of “When You See Me: Visibility in Contemporary Art/History,” Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, 2024-25). Shown, From left, TAVARES STRACHAN, “The Encyclopedia of Invisibility (Oak #8),” 2018 (leather, gilding, archival paper, oak, felt, and acrylic); KEVIN BEASLEY, “Untitled (Sahara),” 2016 (resin, house dresses, pants, bandanas, kaftans, altered pillowcase, altered women’s sweater, T-shirt, and wood). | Courtesy Dallas Museum of Art
Installation view of “When You See Me: Visibility in Contemporary Art/History,” Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, 2024-25). Shown, Foreground, DAVID DRAKE, Storage Jar, 1858 (red clay with light olive-green alkaline glaze); Background, JAMESON GREEEN, “In hopes that we find what we need,” 2021 (oil on canvas). | Courtesy Dallas Museum of Art
Installation view of “When You See Me: Visibility in Contemporary Art/History,” Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, 2024-25). Shown, From left, SALMON TOOR, Partial view of “Back Lawn,” 2021 (oil on panel); LIZZIE FITCH & RYAN TRECARTIN, “It’s Over – Be More Gay,” 2006 (mixed media installation); YOWSHIEN KUO, “True Westerners for One Strange Hour,” 2023 (acrylic, bone ash, glitter, and plastic on aluminum). | Courtesy Dallas Museum of Art
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TSCHABALALA SELF, “Pocket Rocket,” 2020 (digital print on canvas, denim, fabric, thread, painted canvas, dyed canvas, and acrylic and hand-mixed pigments on dyed canvas). | Dallas Museum of Art, Gift from Collection of Marguerite Steed Hoffman, 2022.91.2. Courtesy the artist, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich / Vienna and Pilar Corrias, London
Installation view of “When You See Me: Visibility in Contemporary Art/History,” Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, 2024-25). Shown, At center, GERHARD RICHTER, “48 Portraits,” 1998 (photograph on baryta paper, mounted between matte Plexiglas and Dibond plates); At right, SIMONE LEIGH, “Cupboard,” 2022 (bronze with gold patina). | Courtesy Dallas Museum of Art
Installation view of “When You See Me: Visibility in Contemporary Art/History,” Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, 2024-25). Shown, From left, SAMUEL LEVI JONES, “48 Portraits (Underexposed)” 2012 (suite of 48 inkjet prints on recycled Encyclopedia Britannica paper); SIMONE LEIGH, Detail of “Cupboard,” 2022 (bronze with gold patina). | Courtesy Dallas Museum of Art
Installation view of “When You See Me: Visibility in Contemporary Art/History,” Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, 2024-25). Shown, From left, ILANA SAVDIE, “Weapons of a Mad Abundance, 2020 (oil, acrylic, and beeswax on canvas stretched on panel); RACHEL JONES, “lick your teeth, they so clutch,” 2021 (large panel: acrylic, oil pastel, and oil stick on canvas; small panel: oil pastel and oil stick on canvas). | Courtesy Dallas Museum of Art
Installation view of “When You See Me: Visibility in Contemporary Art/History,” Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, 2024-25). | Courtesy Dallas Museum of Art
WANGARI MATHENGE, “The Ascendants XVIII (She Is Here And So Are You),” 2021 (oil on canvas). | Dallas Museum of Art, TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art Fund, 2022.27. © Wangari Mathenge. Courtesy the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles and Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London
Installation view of “When You See Me: Visibility in Contemporary Art/History,” Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, 2024-25). Shown, WANGARI MATHENGE, “The Ascendants XVIII (She Is Here And So Are You),” 2021. | Courtesy Dallas Museum of Art
Installation view of “When You See Me: Visibility in Contemporary Art/History,” Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, 2024-25). Shown, From left, DANH VO (3), “Wood Block 4,” 2019 (walnut wood); “Rootball Arrangement 1,” 2019 (walnut wood); “Lot 20. Two Kennedy Administration Cabinet Room Chairs,” 2013 (mahogany and metal). | Courtesy Dallas Museum of Art
Installation view of “When You See Me: Visibility in Contemporary Art/History,” Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, 2024-25). Shown, From left, MICHAEL ARMITAGE, “Nyali Beach Boys,” 2016 (oil paint on lubugo bark cloth); KEVIN BEASLEY, Partial view of “Untitled (Sahara),” 2016 (resin, house dresses, pants, bandanas, kaftans, altered pillowcase, altered women’s sweater, T-shirt, and wood); TAVARES STRACHAN, “Touch the Stars,” 2020 (two panels: oil, enamel, and pigment on acrylic); SIMONE LEIGH, Detail of “Cupboard,” 2022 (bronze with gold patina). | Courtesy Dallas Museum of Art
Installation view of “When You See Me: Visibility in Contemporary Art/History,” Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, 2024-25). Shown, From left, MARK BRADFORD, Partial view of “A Truly Rich Man Is One Whose Children Run into His Arms when His Hands Are Empty,” 2008 (mixed media collage on canvas); WILLIE COLE, “Household Cosmology,” 1992 (scorched ironing boards, wood, and metal)’ THEASTER GATES, “Ground rules. Red square for floor hockey and nigger sports,” 2015 (wood flooring). | Courtesy Dallas Museum of Art
BOOKSHELF
“Simone Leigh” is the first major monograph of sculptor Simone Leigh, who represented the United States at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022. “Deborah Roberts: Twenty Years of Art/Work,” a recently published monograph of the artists includes contributions from Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, Dawoud Bey, Ekow Eshun, and Carolyn Jean Martin. “Tavares Strachan: The Awakening” documenting works inspired by Marcus Garvey’s life and work, “Tavares Strachan: In Total Darkness,” and “Tavares Strachan: In Plain Sight,” all accompanied recent gallery exhibitions of the arist. “Tschabalala Self: Bodega Run” was published earlier this year. Also consider, “Kevin Beasley,” the first monograph of Beasley, which accompanied his largest museum exhibition to date at ICA Boston. “Nari Ward: Sun Splashed” and “Nari Ward: We the People” were published on the occasion of large survey exhibitions of the artist. “Nari Ward: Ground Break,” which focuses on his performative, sound, and time-based works, is forthcoming in September.
