It's never been harder to define "art" than it is today, but one thing is certain — artists are always having a conversation with the time they live in.
videos + essays
Over the next two years, Seeing America will grow to include 100 videos, 18 essays, quizzes, discussion questions and lesson plans.
Richard Prince, Nurse Elsa
Prince's bubblegum pink painting is an incredible testament to media culture.
Toshiko Takaezu, Crater Moon
Takaezu's ceramics reflect her belief that art should have "mystery, an unsaid quality; it contains a spirit and is alive."
Arpilleras
Through the creation of arpilleras, women spoke out against the violence of the Pinochet dictatorship.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres, “Untitled” (L.A.)
For Gonzalez-Torres, the pile of candy that makes up "Untitled" (L.A.) is embedded with deeply personal and political meanings.
Jenny Holzer, Inflammatory Essays and All Fall
Holzer's text-based art encourages viewers to reflect on how we make meaning in the world today.
Mickalene Thomas, Guernica (Resist #3)
Thomas's assemblage of photographs, paint, and glittering sequins lends sacredness to the struggles of the civil rights movements.
Muriel Hasbun, X post facto (6.7)
Hasbun's photograph of an X-ray is deeply laden with meaning and tragedy.
Genesis Báez, Crossing Time
Báez’s photograph poetically expresses the tie between the artist and her origins.
Glendalys Medina, Atabey
Atabey, the ancestral mother of the Taíno, is reinterpreted in Medina's carefully constructed work.
Glenn Ligon, Untitled (America)
Brilliant red neon illuminates the word "AMERICA," but why are the letters upside down?
Firelei Báez, Untitled (A Correct Chart of Hispaniola with the Windward Passage)
A partially obscured figure crouches over a historical map of Hispaniola in an act of anticolonial resistance.
Luis Alfonso Jiménez, Eagle
A symbol of the U.S. and Mexico, the eagle reflects Jiménez's Chicano identity.
