"I believe it is important to depict ordinary people engaging in everyday activities because #blackexcellence can be a burden," Harlem born artist Tschabalala Self told Juxtapoz back in our Summer 2019 issue. "You should not have to be excellent, famous, or unique to be granted dignity. Everyone's story is infinitely complex." That sense of everyone is front and center once again as the artist continues a stellar run at institutions around the US, with the next show opening January 20, 2020 at the Boston ICA.
Tschabalala Self: Out of Body will be the artist’s first Boston presentation—and her largest exhibition to date—and will "include a selection of paintings and sculptures that represent personal avatars, couplings, and everyday social exchanges inspired by urban life. Together, they articulate new expressions of embodiment and humanity through the exaggerated forms and exuberant textures of the human figure, pointing to its limitless capacity to represent imagined states, memories, aspirations, and emotions. Yet Self’s characters possess an ordinary grace grounded in reality: they are reflections of the artist or people she can imagine meeting in Harlem, her hometown."