Issues of Identity in Recent American Art

Mar. 18 – Apr. 14, 2002 

Main Gallery 

The exhibition, Issues of Identity in Recent American Art focuses on influential contemporary US artists whose work address issues of culture, race, gender, and national and personal identity. The artists contribute to the current dialogue with powerful, disparate, multi-faceted, and critical work. The artists are: Enrique Chagoya; Tseng Kwong Chi; Robert Colescott; Brad Kahlhamer, Michael Oatman; Adrian Piper; Cindy Sherman; Masami Teraoka; and Carrie Mae Weems. In many ways, they represent the diversity of artists addressing identity issues today. Three of the artists were born outside of the United States: Chagoya (Mexico City, Mexico); Chi (Hong Kong); and Teraoka (Onomichi, Japan). Three are African-American (Colescott, Piper, Weems). Brad Kahlhamer is Native-American. Oatman and Sherman are European-American.

Many regions of the United States are also represented in the exhibition. Kahlhamer, Oatman, Sherman and Weems reside in New York State (Chi, or Joseph Tseng, died in New York in 1990). Chagoya resides in Oakland, CA; Colescott in Tuscon, AZ; Piper in Wellesley, MA; and Teraoka in Waimanalo, HI. Artists from several generations are included as well. And finally, this thematic exhibition presents work across disciplines, including installation and video.

As Grady T. Turner points out in his insightful catalogue essay, the issue of American Identity has been in question since the nation's founding. The artists in this exhibition approach this issue in various ways.

Enrique Chagoya intermixes the cultures of US and Mexico, old and new religions, and art and popular culture in his paintings and prints. His layered work investigates the multi-layers that create our culture.

The late Tseng Kwong Chi made photographic self-portraits, where he presented himself as cultural 'other' in a Mao Suit, making expeditions to Western tourist attractions.

Robert Colescott creates paintings and drawings that tackle the issues of racism, sexism and historical perspective, often through reinterpretation of earlier American works of art. His content-filled work often bursts with drama, humor, anger, frustration, and cultural clichés.

Brad Kahlhamer paints narratives that explore his Native American heritage and personal history as a child adopted into a European-American family, in expressionistic images set in the grand American landscape.

Much of Michael Oatman's work directly addresses the malleability of an individual's identity in society. His installations investigate the transformation of identity: during processing for incarceration, or "classification" under the guise of faux sciences such as eugenics.

Adrian Piper creates installations, performances, drawings and videos that expand our attitudes about race, xenophobia, gender, and forms of oppression against women. Her work provokes examination of the viewer's personal attitudes on these subjects.

Cindy Sherman employs photography to challenge the images and myths of popular culture and mass media. The resulting work ranges from exploration of the self and self-invention found in the black and white Untitled Film Stills (1977-80) to the viscerally humorous recent color photographs.

Masami Teraoka combines elements drawn from the traditional Japanese woodblock print, ukiyo-e, and American Pop Art to address many issues, including East/West culture clashes, contrasts of modern/archaic culture, and crass consumerism/the earth's fragile ecosystem.

As an artist committed to social change, Carrie Mae Weems produces art that explores photography, culture, history, and myths. In work that often combines photography and language, her work is a strategic attempt to shape our perceptions about race, gender and class.

In addition to presenting provocative works by these remarkable 'identity' artists, a reading space has been organized for the exhibition. There, books and catalogues on each of the artists are available for your perusal. -Dan Mills, Director