An art exhibition featuring two of the most important and influential photographers of the 21st century is coming to the Grand Rapids Art Museum on January 29.
Dawoud Bey & Carrie Mae Weems: In Dialogue brings together a focused selection of work from a 40-year period by two of today’s most important and influential photo-based artists, Dawoud Bey and Carrie Mae Weems.
Both born in 1953, these photographers came of age during a period of dramatic change in the American social landscape. They met at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1977, and have been colleagues and friends ever since.
Over the past five decades, Bey and Weems have explored themes of race, class, representation, and systems of power, creating work surrounding specific African American events and realities, as well as shining a light on a variety of human conditions.
The exhibition, In Dialogue, brings together their work for the first time, spending light on their unique presentations and their shared principles. Both Bey and Weems create work in focused series that gives them an opportunity to fully explore their complex and layered ideas. It is arranged in five sections that present the two artists’ work in thematic pairings, emphasizing both their mutual concerns and distinct artistic approaches.
Dawoud Bey & Carrie Mae Weems: In Dialogue will be on display at the Grand Rapids Art Museum from January 29 – April 30.
Learn more by visiting artmuseumgr.org or call (616) 831-1000.
