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Our world and the ways in which we perceive and understand it are both shaped and reflected by art. This is especially true when it comes to nations and the stories they tell of themselves. Focusing on American identity, this podcast was recorded during a live panel discussion between Lauren Haynes (curator of contemporary art at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas), Paul Anthony Smith (artist), Antwaun Sargent (critic) and host Charlotte Burns at The Armory Show in New York earlier this month.
From the question of whether there are “American” artists today to what it means to consider oneself American; from representation within museums to how morality is dealt with in US culture, our guests ask how institutions, and the art world at large, are working to foster a more expansive narrative.
Tune in today to hear more.
Who
Lauren Haynes
Curator, contemporary art at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Lauren Haynes is a curator of contemporary art at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Prior to joining Crystal Bridges in October 2016, Haynes spent nearly a decade at The Studio Museum in Harlem. As a specialist in African American contemporary art, Haynes organized or co-organized dozens of exhibitions at the Studio Museum including Speaking of People: Ebony, Jet and Contemporary Art; Stanley Whitney: Dance the Orange; and Alma Thomas. At the Studio Museum, Haynes oversaw the care and collection of the permanent collection as well as acquisitions and exhibitions. As part of her curatorial practice, Haynes has authored and co-authored several catalogues such as Alma Thomas, The Bearden Project, Speaking of People: Ebony, Jet and Contemporary Art, and Stanley Whitney: Dance the Orange. She is a member of the Association of Art Museum Curators and serves on the Nomination and Governance Committee. Haynes is a recipient of a 2016 Gold Rush Award from Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation.
Paul Anthony Smith
Artist
Paul Anthony Smith (b. Jamaica, 1988) creates paintings and unique picotages on pigment prints that explore the artist’s autobiography, as well as issues of identity within the African diaspora. Referencing both W.E.B. Du Bois’ concept of double consciousness and Franz Fanon’s theory of diasporic cultural confusions caused by colonialism, Smith alludes to African rituals, tribal masks, and scarification to obscure and alter his subjects’ faces and skin. Through Smith’s process of picotage, rendered with the use of a ceramic tool to pick away at surfaces of photographic prints, he achieves rich textures that appear almost iridescent. With this method, Smith questions the potential of a photograph to retain and tell the truth of one’s past.
Smith’s work has been acquired by numerous public collections, including the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Blanton Museum at the University of Texas, Austin, and has been featured in numerous museum exhibitions, including a solo show at the Atlanta Contemporary, a two person show at the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, and group shows at the New Museum, New York, NY; Brooklyn Museum of Art; the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC; the Seattle Art Museum; the Studio Museum in Harlem; and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS; among others.
Antwaun Sargent
Critic and writer
Antwaun Sargent is writer and critic living and working in New York City. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Nation, W, Vice and various other publications. He has recently contributed essays and interviews to museum and gallery publications for artists Ed Clark, Mickalene Thomas, Arthur Jafa and Yinka Shonibare. Sargent has lectured and been in conversation with artists at Studio Museum in Harlem, Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, Art Gallery of Toronto and various other institutions. His first book “The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion” is out this fall from Aperture.
Charlotte Burns
Executive editor of In Other Words
Charlotte Burns is the editor of In Other Words, our weekly newsletters and podcasts. She was previously the US news and market editor for The Art Newspaper, as well as a regular correspondent for publications such as the Guardian and Monocle. Previously, she worked with the London dealer Anthony d’Offay on special projects. For several years, she was a consultant at the cultural communications agency, Bolton & Quinn. She also worked at Hauser & Wirth in London.
Burns received a Masters degree (with Merit) from the Courtauld Institute in Art and Cultural Politics in Germany, 1890-1945, as well as a first-class B.A. honors degree in English and History of Art from Birmingham University. She moved to New York in 2010.
