Heading: By Dana Elaine Carroll
Contributing Writer
If you visit the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) between now and August 3, 2025, you’ll encounter a moving exhibition that explores connections to African heritage in diverse and contemporary contexts.
Upon entering LACMA’s new exhibit “Imagining Black Diasporas: 21st-Century Art and Poetics,” the viewer is first confronted by Virginian artist Adam Pendleton’s “Our Ideas #4,” a striking, large-scale work crafted in black-and-white silkscreen ink on Mylar. This thought-provoking piece sets the tone for an exhibition rooted in bold expression and strong messages from Black experiences across generations and landscapes.
Adjacent to Pendleton’s work, Los Angeles-based Black artist Sanford Biggers presents “Witness,” a mixed-media sculpture that blends materials such as sequins, canvas fabric, tar, and glitter to create a three-dimensional form reminiscent of traditional African sculpture. The sculptures are trailed by painted shadows that are distinctly African American, illustrating the Pan-African cultural identity.
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The exhibition includes an array of works from around the world, showcasing the preservation of African heritage amid displacement and colonization. From intricate beadwork textiles originating in South Africa to colorfully painted statues from England, the collection celebrates the enduring influence of African artistry.
LaToya Ruby Frazier’s “If everybody’s work is equally important? (II),” a series of protest photographs, holds a visual conversation on the impact of toxic waste production at industrial factories. Several pieces address urgent social issues, such as police brutality, with unflinching honesty.
The exhibition as a whole is a captivating display of colors, textures, and techniques: textiles and metals, wet and dry media, photography, and videography. Together, these works capture the spectrum of Black expression—joy, pain, sexuality, and resistance—creating a compelling and deeply emotional experience for viewers.
The art pieces on display are the work of 60 artists hailing from Africa, Europe, and the Americas, and LACMA states that the exhibition and its accompanying catalogue are among the first to examine nearly a quarter century of production by Black artists.
“Imagining Black Diasporas” is also groundbreaking for its attempt to expand regional representation, including local Los Angeles artists, in the Pan-African art world, which has historically centered on Black artists from the East Coast.
The exhibition showcases 70 works across four thematic sections — Speech and Silence, Movement and Transformation, Imagination, and Representation. Speech and Silence examines the power of language and the creative potential of silence, while Movement and Transformation focuses on the human body in motion, migration histories, and resistance to confinement. Imagination uses abstraction and collage to explore fragmented experiences, challenging the authority of historical images and narratives.
Finally, the Representation segment critically engages with portraiture and photography, confronting the medium’s role in imperialism and reclaiming the power of self-representation through personal and ancestral stories.
The exhibition showcases established artists Igshaan Adams, Mark Bradford, Sanford Biggers, Nick Cave, Deana Lawson, Ibrahim Mahama, Abdoulaye Ndoye, Wangechi Mutu, Lorna Simpson, and Yinka Shonibare.
The works of emerging and mid-career artists Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Josué Azor, Samuel de Saboia, Susana Pilar Delahante Matienzo, Chioma Ebinama, Chelsea Odufu, Zohra Opoku, and Alberta Whittle are presented with L.A.–based artists including Edgar Arceneaux, Widline Cadet, Patrisse Cullors, Awol Erizku, and Paul Mpagi Sepuya. The exhibition is curated by Dhyandra Lawson, Andy Song Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at LACMA.
“Often art historians focus on Black artists’ biographies or write evocative accounts of their experiences of oppression before critically examining their innovations or use of materials,” said Lawson.
“Diaspora’s general definition as a displacement from origins excludes all the creativity the term entails. Imagining Black Diasporas highlights Black artists’ aesthetic decisions to amplify their insights.”
The “Imagining Black Diasporas: 21st-Century Art and Poetics” exhibit is on display until August 3, 2025.
To learn more, visit LACMA.org.
