CONTACT: ssanzodavis@berkeley.edu(link sends e-mail)
As public interest in “Black art” has grown, there has been a concurrent increase in interest in thinking through mediums more critically. This proliferation has given rise to the questions: What is the category of “Black art?” How does blackness appear across media or geographies? How are conceptions of gender illuminated through visual production and representations? The Black Visual Culture working group is an interdisciplinary research group that supports graduate students interested in viewing and analyzing Black diasporic visual production. Through engaged dialogue, members explore blackness, abstraction, figuration, and (non)representation as they appear in media such as photography, painting, sculpture, and film. The group also questions the category of “Black art” and explores ongoing conversations on the role of the “Black artist” through critical engagement with scholars in Black Studies and Visual Media. Theoretical explorations include Black Aesthesis, Black Feminisms, Afro-Pessimism, and Black (non)Ontology.