Current events and unfolding histories have long informed Mehretu’s practice. Her most recent works are propelled by her reaction to urgent crises in our present moment, and how the media’s framing of these conditions impacts society. From the incessant stream of daily imagery we consume of violence, injustice, warfare, and environmental disasters, Mehretu seeks out resonant photographs—of fires raging simultaneously in California and Myanmar in 2017, for example; or in the case of this print, an image from the civil unrest in Minneapolis on May 28, 2020 following the murder of George Floyd. These photographic sources, which Mehretu alters by digitally blurring, rotating, and cropping them, become the ground of her recent works. The artist then builds upon these in layers by marking over them with her own gestures to create visually and conceptually complex abstractions.

Martin’s current work deals with reconstructing the identity of Black women by piecing together the signs, symbols, and language found in what could be called everyday life from slavery through modern times. Martin’s goal is to create images as a visual language to tell the story of women that have often been marginalized, offering a different perspective of the lives of Black women.

The artist uses two coyotes in this work, often depicted as characters of dual nature representing both creator and destroyer, suspended in a mirrored relationship, symbolic of the balance between two opposites. This scene plays out between two borders of a stencil pattern, which represent ribbon work found on traditional American Indian clothing (details which are incorporated into much of Buffalohead’s recent work).

Other works by Mungo Thomson also available.

Alexa Horochowski’s work addresses the interrelatedness of natural forces (e.g., weather, erosion, plant life), globalization, culture, and matter. The interplay of natural, industrial, and cultural phenomena finds a distilled, physical expression in her hybrid objects.

Since the late 1980s, Jim Hodges has created a broad range of work exploring themes of fragility, temporality, love and death utilizing a highly original and poetic vocabulary. His works frequently deploy different materials and techniques, from ready-made objects to more traditional media, such as graphite, ink, gold leaf and mirrored elements.