THE TIME IS ALWAYS NOW: ARTISTS REFRAME THE BLACK FIGURE

This exhibition featured 28 Black and African diasporic contemporary artists who use figurative painting, drawing and sculpture to illuminate and celebrate the nuance and richness of Black contemporary life.

The more than 60 contemporary works featured in this exhibition unfolded around three core themes: Double Consciousness, Past and Presence and Our Aliveness. Double Consciousness, a theory first introduced in 1897 by the African American sociologist W.E.B Du Bois, explores concepts of being, belonging and Blackness as a psychological state. Past and Presence explores the absence of Black figures in many mainstream narratives and shows how artists have responded. Our Aliveness features assertions and celebrations of Black assembly and gathering.

I had the privilege of working with organizing curators Ekow Eshun, guest curator for the National Portrait Gallery, London, and the supporting curator is Sarah Howgate, Senior Curator of Contemporary Collections at the National Portrait Gallery, London. In Philadelphia, I curated the exhibition in my capacity as John Alchin and Hal Marryatt Curator of Contemporary Art with Yocari De Los Santos, Constance E. Clayton Fellow. The exhibition was organized by the National Portrait Gallery, London, in collaboration with the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The Time Is Always Now traveled to the Philadelphia Museum of Art from the National Portrait Gallery in London. Focusing on Black and African diasporic artists who work in the U.S. and the U.K, the show included Michael Armitage, Claudette Johnson, Kerry James Marshall, Toyin Ojih Odutola, and Amy Sherald. For its U.S. premiere, I worked with Ekow and the team to add artists working in Philadelphia, London, and New York such as Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, Roberto Lugo, Danielle Mckinney, Deborah Roberts, and Arthur Timothy.