Photographers Renée Cox and Ayana V. Jackson in conversation with curator and writer Monique Long

Join us for a special conversation between photographers Renée Cox and Ayana V. Jackson, moderated by curator and writer Monique Long. The event will include a special introduction by Elizabeth A. Kahane, Aperture trustee and chair of the Paul Strand Circle Committee.

Renée Cox has reimagined art historical tropes, historical narratives, and referenced popular culture primarily using her own body and occasionally those of her children, friends, and family. Many of her earlier works stand in direct opposition to the preceding generation’s notions of feminism and the movement’s desire to obfuscate traditional representations of women. For example, works in Cox’s iconic Yo Mama series exalt Black maternity and motherhood, subverting canonical images of Madonna and Child.

Aperture last featured Renée’s work in December 2016 with an interview with Uri McMillan titled Renée Cox: A Taste of Power. Renée is currently included in the Uptown Triennial at Columbia University’s Wallach Art Gallery.

Ayana V. Jackson’s research-based practice focuses on the role of early photography and Black subjectivity. The works function as a critique and exploration of the nascent use of the medium as a tool in the propagation of racial stereotypes. The material for Jackson’s work is primarily archival images and antique family albums. She appears in her photographic works with performative gestures and bespoke costuming, portraying historical figures including Sara Forbes Bonetta and the inaugural graduating class of Spelman College, an historically black liberal arts institution from which she is an alumna.

A selection from Ayana’s new body of work Take Me to the Water appears in the current issue of Aperture magazine. These new works will comprise an upcoming solo exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C.

Monique Long is a writer and independent curator based in New York. She is a frequent contributor to ArtNews, Ubikwist Magazine, and Document Journal. Long is organizing the upcoming exhibition, Elegies: Still Lifes in Contemporary Art which will open at the Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco in the spring of 2022.

Members at the Paul Strand Circle level or above will receive a Zoom invite. Not a member? See here or email kwalcott@aperture.org for details.