Exhibition
Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America
02/17/21-06/06/21
Conversations · Exhibition-Related
Hank Willis Thomas in Conversation with Margot Norton
On 14,719 (2019)
Cover Image:
Hank Willis Thomas, 14,719, 2019. Embroidered stars on polyester fabric, each: 320 × 31 in (812.8 × 78.7 cm). “Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America,” 2021. Exhibition view: New Museum, New York. Photo: Dario Lasagni.
In conjunction with the New Museum’s exhibition “Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America,” the New Museum is honored to host a series of artist conversations highlighting the practices of artists participating in this exhibition.
Accessibility: we strive to make our programs as accessible as possible. For full accessibility information, including services available by request, please click here.
Hank Willis Thomas (b. 1976, Plainfield, NJ) works across photography, sculpture, video, and collaborative public art projects to address how visual and verbal systems in popular culture can perpetuate bias and discrimination. His powerful and poetic works invite viewers to question these systems, raising critical awareness for issues of inequity and injustice, and illustrating how art can be a catalyst to effect political and social change. Thomas’s first mid-career retrospective exhibition “All Things Being Equal…” was organized by the Portland Museum in Oregon (2019) and traveled to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas (2020) and the Cincinnati Art Museum in Ohio (2020). Recent solo exhibitions have been held at the ICA Miami, FL (2019); SCAD Museum of Arts, Savannah, GA (2017); California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2016); the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (2013); and the International Center of Photography, New York, NY (2013). In 2016 Thomas co-founded the artist-led collective For Freedoms, a platform for creative civic engagement in the United States, which was awarded the 2017 ICP Infinity Award for New Media and Online Platform. Thomas was recently chosen to design Boston’s Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King Memorial in conjunction with MASS Design group. He is also the recipient of the Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship (2019), the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (2018), Art for Justice Grant (2018), AIMIA | AGO Photography Prize (2017), Soros Equality Fellowship (2017), and is a former member of the New York City Public Design Commission.
Sponsors
Lead support for “Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America” is provided by the Ford Foundation.
Major support is provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and Agnes Gund.
New Museum Digital Initiatives are generously supported by Hermine and David B. Heller.
Generous ongoing support is provided by the Charlotte and Bill Ford Artist Talks Fund.
Support for Education and Public Engagement programs is provided, in part, by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
Endowment support is provided by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund; the Skadden, Arps Education Programs Fund; and the William Randolph Hearst Endowed Fund for Education Programs at the New Museum.
Support of artist participation is provided by Laura Skoler.
Additional support for education and community programs is provided by the American Chai Trust.
A full list of support for “Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America” can be viewed here.
