OHIO’s Kennedy Museum of Art presents “Carrie Mae Weems: The Usual Suspects”

Photo courtesy of: artist‘All the Boys (Blocked 1),’ 31 3/8 x 27 3/8 in, archival pigment and silkscreened panel mounted on gesso board, 2016.

On Jan. 11, 2019, OHIO’s Kennedy Museum of Art will open “Carrie Mae Weems: The Usual Suspects,” an exhibition that includes recent photographic and video works questioning stereotypes that associate black bodies with criminality. The show will be featured through March 31, with an artist reception Jan. 24, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Two of the three associated works, “All the Boys” and “The Usual Suspects,” examine the racial stereotypes at the heart of deaths of black men and women at the hands of police, and confronts the viewer with the fact of judicial inaction. The third piece in the exhibition, “People of a Darker Hue,” is a meditative compilation of video, found footage, narration and performance commemorating these deaths.

Considered one of the most influential contemporary American artists, Carrie Mae Weems has investigated family relationships, cultural identity, sexism, class, political systems and the consequences of power. Determined as ever to enter the picture — both literally and metaphorically — she has sustained an ongoing dialogue within contemporary discourse for over 30 years. During this time Weems has developed a complex body of art employing photographs, text, fabric, audio, digital images, installation, and video.

In 2013 Weems received the MacArthur “Genius” grant as well as the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Weems has received numerous awards, grants and fellowships including the prestigious Prix de Roma, The National Endowment of the Arts, the Alpert, the Anonymous was a Woman and the Tiffany Awards, among many other honors.

Weems has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions at major national and international museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Frist Center for Visual Art, Solomon Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo in Seville, Spain. She is represented in public and private collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. “Carrie Mae Weems: The Usual Suspects” was organized by LSU Museum of Art (Baton Rouge, La.).

The week of the opening reception, Weems will visit Athens to give an artist lecture in the Baker Center Ballroom at 7 p.m. Jan. 22, attend an opening reception of the exhibition from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Jan. 24 at the Kennedy Museum of Art and present a masterclass performance at 8 p.m. Jan. 25 in The Forum Theater in the basement of the Radio Television Building.

This series of visiting artist events is made possible with the generous support of Arts for Ohio, the School of Art + Design, Visiting Arts and Scholars Committee, School of Theater, School of Interdisciplinary Arts, Kennedy Lecture Series, Ohio University Performing Arts Series, Office for Diversity and Inclusion, Multicultural Center and Black Student Cultural Programming Board, African American Studies, the School of Dance, Cutler Scholars Program, the OHIO Honors Program, and the LGBT Center. These events are free and open to the public.