Lux et Veritas at NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale

By May 28, 2022
Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Nyado: The Thing Around Her Neck, 2011; acrylic, transfers, colored pencil, charcoal, lace, and collage on paper; 84 inches by 84 inches. Courtesy David Zwirner and Victoria Miro.
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Eric N. Mack, Tessuti Raponi (Ciao Milano), 2018; fabric; 193 inches by 322 1/2 inches by 87 inches. Courtesy the NSU Museum of Art. Photographed by Steven Brooke.

“The exhibition Lux et Veritas explores a transformative period in contemporary art by focusing on a generation of artists of color who attended Yale School of Art for graduate studies between 2000 and 2010. The exhibition’s title alludes to Yale University’s motto, Lux et Veritas, which translates from Latin to “Light and Truth.” In the context of this exhibition, the title references how these artists thought with critical complexity about their work and their movement through institutional structures.

“As with similar programs, Yale School of Art, in New Haven, Connecticut, had not been historically diverse, which spurred these art students to form affiliations across the departments of painting, graphic design, sculpture, photography and art history. They filled gaps in the school’s curriculum and counteracted the lack of diversity among the faculty by inviting artists, curators and writers of color as advisors and guest speakers, developing an interdisciplinary forum, publishing art journals, organizing exhibitions and documenting their experiences in video and photography. The relationships they formed at school evolved into communities that networked and provided essential support and feedback for one another, often passing on these efforts beyond graduate study. Their reevaluation of the Western art canon, and commitment to the method and practice of teaching has contributed to a greater recognition of artists of color, challenged stereotypes and enriched the overall shared spaces of learning and thinking about art and the art praxis.

Lux et Veritas provides a public forum in which to address the directions these artists took based on the explorations that began in graduate school and were instilled thereafter in their practice.

from the exhibition text

Mike Cloud, Hero Portrait Georgine Carrigan, 2020; oil on canvas and mixed media; 30 inches by 70 inches by 1 1/2 inches. Courtesy the Landing Gallery.
Luis Gispert and Jeffrey Reed, Stereomongrel, 2005; Super 35mm film, color, sound; 12 minutes. Courtesy the Lundgren Gallery.
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Loren Holland, Bait and Switch, 2018; oil on canvas; 30 inches by 24 inches. Courtesy the artist.
Wardell Milan, I’m trying to keep my faith. But, I’m searching for more. Somewhere I can
be safe.
, 2017-2018; digital C-print, mounted on Dibond; 44 inches x 98 inches. Courtesy the artist and David Nolan Gallery.

Lux et Veritas is on view at the NSU Art Museum in Fort Lauderdale through October 23, 2022.

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