DREAMWEAVERS — Concept NV

An exhibition on surreal times.
Curated by Nicola Vassell
UTA Artist Space, Los Angeles, USA
February 13 – April 13, 2019

Nick Cave
Karon Davis
Cy Gavin
David Hammons
Hector Hyppolite
Arthur Jafa

Pope L
Deana Lawson
Kerry James Marshall
Toyin Ojih Odutola
Noah Purifoy
Nathaniel Mary Quinn

Tschabalala Self
Ming Smith
Nari Ward
Carrie Mae Weems
Charles White
Kehinde Wiley

UTA Artist Space
Address 403 Foothill Rd, Beverly Hills, CA

DREAMWEAVERS examines the evolution of artistic practice against a vigorously shifting 21st century and points to the surreal as a testament of shared and individual, reality-defying experiences. It probes the paradox of fact and fantasy in contemporary society through the lens of artists who operate from a deeply imaginative, often paradoxical and provocative, psychological space.

In Conversation Series
Directed by Sing J. Lee & Sylvia M. Zackhary

Swizz Beatz speaks to Troy Carter
Carrie Mae Weems speaks to Terence Nance
Ming Smith speaks to Arthur Jafa

Central to DREAMWEAVERS is our place in history: 2019, two years post-Obama. Pillars of social order like truth, reason, justice and civility destabilize, while an appetite for resilience, toil, ingenuity and triumph intensifies along the embattled frontlines of identity and politics. The artists in DREAMWEAVERS sit within the powerful black renaissance of this era, an altar of cultural production, affirmed by markets and media, at which many come to worship. Its disciples recognize that devotion protects community and defend it from church steeple to Instagram handle, proliferating messages of solidarity in togetherness.

Forever custodians of truth and marvel, artists who weave dreams, observe the collision of withered civil virtue, passionate resistance and vast cultural influence. From an unconscious marked by oppression, rather than repression, imaginative forces rise that manifest the surreal and narrate the illogic of our time.