Multiplicity

Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage is the first large-scale exhibition dedicated to exploring collage by contemporary Black American artists such as Mark Bradford, Kerry James Marshall, Tschabalala Self, and Kara Walker. Featuring more than 60 works by over 45 artists, this exhibition celebrates the broad variety and complexity of Black identity in art. Building on a technique that has roots in European and American traditions, the diverse, intergenerational group of artists have created innovative works with pieces of paper, photographs, fabrics, and/or other salvaged materials. The bold compositions, created with an array of experimental techniques, offer poignant expressions of human experience, including fragmentation and reconstruction, shared history and memory, cultural hybridity, gender fluidity, and notions of beauty.

This exhibition is organized by the Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN. 

The presentation at The Phillips Collection is made possible by The Frauke and Willem de Looper Fund.

Additional support is provided by Reid Walker. 

Support for the national exhibition tour is provided by generous grants from the Henry Luce Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

IMAGE: Wardell Milan, Pulse. That’s that Orlando moon, 808 club bass. That’s that keep dancing, that’s that never stop, 2022, Charcoal, graphite, oil, pastel, pastel acrylic, cut-and-paste paper on hand dyed paper; 72 1/2 x 53 3/8 in., The Collection of Michael Hoeh, New York, courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York © Wardell Milan