NATE LEWIS exhibits in “Plumb Line: Charles White and the Contemporary” at California African American Museum

 

exhibitions

current

Plumb Line: Charles White and the Contemporary

March 8 – August 25, 2019

curated by: Essence Harden, independent curator, and Leigh Raiford, Associate Professor of African American Studies at the University of California at Berkeley

A prolific painter, printmaker, muralist, draftsman, and photographer whose career spanned more than half a century, Charles White’s artistic portrayals of black subjects, life, and history were extensive and far-reaching. Plumb Line features contemporary artists whose work in the realm of black individual and collective life resonates with White’s profound and continuing influence.

From abstraction to figuration, the artists of Plumb Line (listed below) find conversation with White through the largesse of their canvases, expansive renderings of black skin and black community, and in the treatment of black past and presence in ways that are both epic and intimate.

The plumb line, an architectural tool used to determine verticality, is a featured element in White’s Birmingham Totem, suggesting the work of black artists as architects of change. White himself can also be considered an artistic plumb line: a builder of black artistic opportunities and a compass directing us toward new aesthetic, liberatory possibilities.

Plumb Line is curated by Essence Harden, independent curator, and Leigh Raiford, Associate Professor of African American Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, for the California African American Museum. The exhibition is presented as a companion to the LACMA exhibitions Charles White: A Retrospective and Life Model: Charles White and his Students.

Complete list of artists: Derrick Adams, Sadie Barnette, Dawoud Bey, Diedrick Brackens, Greg Breda, Bisa Butler, Alfred Conteh, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Ariel Dannielle, Kenturah Davis, Torkwase Dyson, Kohshin Finley, Derek Fordjour, Ficre Ghebreyesus, EJ Hill, Yashua Klos, Nate Lewis, Michelangelo Lovelace, Christopher Myers, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Deborah Roberts, Lava Thomas, Charles White, and Deborah Willis

Exhibitions. Programs. Workshops. Events. Conversations.

CAAM is not just a museum. We are a living, breathing experience, a thriving center for dialogue and discourse about art, culture, history, and identity. We promise you’ll find something to love and to take part in here — so visit, and visit often! Located in the heart of LA’s Exposition Park, we are also surrounded by some of the city’s most vibrant institutions, including the Natural History Museum, the California Science Center and the forthcoming Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, Sunday from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm, and is closed on Monday (except MLK Day!).

Admission is always free.

Driving and Parking

If you are driving, CAAM is at the corner of Figueroa Street and Exposition Boulevard, just west of the 110 Freeway. Please note that our parking lot entrance is at 39th and Figueroa. Please put that cross section into your maps search or GPS device.

 

 

Available artwork by NATE LEWIS