10/25 exhibition+essay

Suhilah Latif 

Acts of Resistance: Activists, Interlops and Pranksters

Prof. Doris Cacoilo

25 October 2023

    In her memoir This Is What I Know About Art, Kimberly Drew depicts the journey that ultimately led her to become an author, delving into the art space, the frustrations and events that invoked her to promote change in her place of work, and her collaborative efforts in the activism scene. Drew’s work parallels many of the themes discussed in class concerning diversity in the workplace including but not limited to, class stratification, black expression, racial disadvantages, and representation. At the beginning of her art activist journey, Drew shares the invalidation and erasure of the black experience expressed by her fellow classmates and professor. Drew states, “I never want my story to be defined by a string of heartbreaks, but that exchange with my adviser marked me forever. It made me feel alone. It almost broke me” (Drew, 22). Based on our previous discussions in class, it can be deduced that people are most likely to become involved with activism through personal traumas and experiences. Steve Duncomb and Lambert refer to this notion as “stepping off the curb” (Duncombe, Lambert 16) in their novel The Art of Activism: Your All-Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible. This display of outright racism and dismissal in a predominantly white space was one of those pivotal moments for Drew. I personally relate to this experience being the only Muslim in most academic spaces throughout my life thus far. I have felt such discomfort and invalidation, it is these instances that propel me to take the steps to advocate on behalf of this experience. I actively participate in protests, community gatherings, and artistic displays to bring awareness and be a part of spaces where I feel seen and heard.

    As a college graduate Drew participated in a fellowship at Creative Time where she first felt the barriers of being a person of color in the workplace. During this time, she was privileged enough to attend curator Bennet Simpson’s Blues for Smoke exhibition based on the impact of blues music as a means of black expression. “Blues for Smoke looked at the function of the blues as a form of cultural expression through the lens of contemporary art. The artists in the show represented different race” (Drew, 26). Authors, historians, and curators use their mediums to convey stories they value and deem worthy of sharing with their audiences. In this case, the unsung novelty that is blues music and the power it holds in African-American history. Simpson’s exhibit Blues for Smoke is an example of the many forms activism can take. Similarly, the exhibit Artistas de Latinoamérica Sueños y Posibilidades focuses on the Latin-American experience in context of the “American dream” and individual expression. Throughout her novel, Drew chronicles the multiple instances in which she combats social and financial challenges as a black woman in the art world. These artists relate to Drew’s mission in the art activist space by eliciting change through documented pieces of themselves that denote their personal cultural experience in a way that is receptive.




    Dayana Munoz is a Cuban artist who seeks to celebrate ethnic features and display the social, political, and cultural realities of Cuba. Munoz’s collages repurpose photos that have “lost their function” as a way to depict her existential, psychological, and social issues as a human being. Her works are interpretations of reality as she searches for her own identity. This can be seen in her collage referenced above entitled Collage 2: Transcendence Series. The additional painting is a piece by Ray Arcadio, a Dominican-American artist. His work addresses the importance of iconography on our identity. As a Latino American, Arcadio aims to demonstrate through the Messengers series who he is and where he comes from. It can be assumed that the piece titled Lisa, Lisa: Messages Series shown above is in dedication to the Puertorican icon Lisa Velez, lead singer of renowned 80’s band Cult Jam. This piece not only stands for Latin American representation but also a noteworthy piece of Arcadio’s portfolio as Lisa is an icon that took part in shaping his identity. Drew states, “Our activism, like any other part of ourselves, develops into something bigger than a singular experience. Activism is a collective action and an investment in the lives of other people” (Drew, 47). The artwork in Artistas de Latinoamérica Sueños y Posibilidades are visual conduits of Munoz and Arcadio’s respective personal journeys in parallel to Drew’s message about art activism by giving power to the Latin American community and inspiring Latino youth beyond the scope of stereotypes. Susan Sontag states in her anthology On Photography that “photographs alter and enlarge our notions of what is worth looking at and what we have a right to observe” that they are “interpretation(s) of the world” (Sontag 2010). Curators control the art that we see and consequently who and what that art represents. This gallery in particular calls attention to the beauty and pain of the Latin American experience. As we’ve discussed in class, art activism is a way to make activism personal as well as interactive as a means to engage a specified audience to evoke change. Hence why Artistas de Latinoamérica Sueños y Posibilidades is inherently activist.

Works Cited 

Drew, Kimberly. This Is What I Know About Art. Penguin Random House LLC, New York, 2020

Sontag, Susan. On Photography. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977

Lambert, S. (2021). ART OF ACTIVISM: your all-purpose guide to making the impossible possible. Or Books.

* I couldn't figured out how to make this double-spaced here