UTA Artist Space and Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean are proud to present Dreamweavers, a group exhibition curated by Nicola Vassell that contemplates the surreal in society against a vigorously shifting 21st century. The exhibition opens February 13, 2019, 6-8 PM, at UTA Artist Space.
Dreamweavers examines the paradox of fact and fantasy through the lens of artists who operate from a deeply imaginative, often provocative, psychological space. The exhibition features the work of 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, and Kehinde Wiley, among others. 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, affirmed by contemporary markets and media. They observe the collision of withered civil virtue, passionate resistance, and vast cultural influence. From a collective unconscious marked by oppression, rather than repression, new imaginative forces rise to manifest the surreal and narrate the illogic of our time.
