Exhibitions

Explore [action=query] Black Arts and Black Aesthetics

Throughout [action=query], we’re publishing a series of critical essays and interviews that speak to Black arts and aesthetics on our Journal, with more pieces coming soon.

Essays

Adam Pendleton, Black Dada Reader Publication

Afterward for Black Dada Reader

By Adam Pendleton

In the afterword for Black Dada Reader, excerpted here, Adam Pendleton elucidates "afro-conceptualism," a term the artist uses to define the relationship between notions of abstraction and freedom.

Torkwas Dyson, Below, Becoming, Belonging (Systems in the Dark), 2022

Black Interiority: Notes on Architecture, Infrastructure, Environmental Justice and Abstract Drawing

By Torkwase Dyson

Torkwase Dyson, whose practice has been a focus of Kristen Owens’s research, shares her notes on centering black subjectivity in an essay republished on the occasion of [action=query] in New York.

Some Reflections on the Black Aesthetic

By Larry Neal

Originally published in the 1971 collection The Black Aesthetic, Larry Neal's essay roughly outlines categories and elements that constituted a “Black Aesthetic” outlook.

Interviews

Wikimedia Fellow Kristen Owens and Scholar Howard Rambsy II on the Past, Present, and Future of Black Bibliographic Practice

Kristen Owens speaks with Howard Rambsy II about the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, the changing landscape of archival and bibliographic practices, and more.

Wikimedia Fellow Kristen Owens and Black Art Library Founder Asmaa Walton Discuss Resource Sharing, Communal Action, and More

To mark the opening of [action=query]: Black Arts and Black Aesthetics, Kristen Owens is joined in conversation by Asmaa Walton, who established the nonprofit Black Art Library in 2020.

On Building an Archive: Paul Ninson and Kristen Owens In Conversation

Paul Ninson, founder of Dikan Center in Accra, Ghana, and Kristen Owens discuss their respective impetuses for building archives, the intricacies of accessibility, and the Black artists and figures who inspire them.

Exhibition Film