Representation

The artist’s works amend the white supremacist mythology contained in American monuments and historical paintings: “Democracy requires a clear understanding of the past, including its mistakes.”

From Super PAC to supernova, two artists view photographs through the lens of time, and time through the lens of colonialism.

“It turns out making art was the best idea [for me]. My mother’s idea was good because it got me started. She said, ‘Look, you are skinny; you are little. You can’t hang out with your daddy and them big guys.’”

Amid recollections of a joint trip to Haiti, photographer Deana Lawson and painter Henry Taylor parse the art of portraiture in each of their different mediums.

Foster and Keene discuss the strategies for black resistance in their respective new books—the poetry volume A Swarm of Bees in High Court and Counternarratives, a collection of short fictions.

The painters discuss facial symmetry and mirror neurons, the interplay between image and texture, and their shared interest in storytelling through figuration.

“I would like to do more of that kind of thing: travel, spend some time in a place and really work from a different vantage point. I don’t know what will happen in my work from that, but I trust my ability to find the tools to find my way into my work. I think I will sit out in the woods more.”

Deana Lawson’s photographs are now featured in MoMA’s New Photography exhibition. Carmen Winant sits down with Lawson to discuss the visual vernacular of her background, large and small format photography, and Audre Lorde’s definition of the erotic.

I met Mickalene Thomas a decade ago at the Yale University School of Art and liked her instantly. She was a standout for her energy, drive, open–mindedness, and raw talent. For this interview I visited her in her Brooklyn studio where we were surrounded by a half dozen or so of her new paintings in various stages of development.