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<header class="exhibition-info"> <h1><em>Arthur Jafa: Works from the MCA Collection</em></h1><h2>Jun 01, 2024 - May 18, 2025</h2><div class="links"><a class="button-blk" href="https://experience.mcachicago.org/events?kid=64&startDate=2024-09-12">Get Tickets</a><div class="venues"><a href="https://mcachicago.org/about/locations/sylvia-neil-and-daniel-fischel-galleries">Sylvia Neil and Daniel Fischel Galleries</a></div></div> </header> <div id="row-0" class="row-section row-gallery " data-title="" > <div class="gallery-wrapper"><div class="swiper"><div class="swiper-wrapper"><div class="swiper-slide" data-caption="Arthur Jafa, <em>Mickey Mouse was a Scorpio</em>, 2017. Chromogenic print mounted on aluminum; 52 x 83 in (132.1 x 210.8 cm). Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Gift of Marilyn and Larry Fields, 2023.61. © Arthur Jafa, Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen."><img src="https://visit.mcachicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/AJ057.webp" alt="Artwork installed on a white wall. The left side of the artwork is a black and white illustration of Mickey Mouse. The right side of the artwork is a black and white photo of a person with skull makeup on their face."></div><div class="swiper-slide" data-caption="Arthur Jafa, <em>APEX </em>(still), 2013. Video (color, sound); 8 minutes, 12 seconds. Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Gift of R. H. Defares to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 2017.35. © Arthur Jafa, Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery. "><img src="https://visit.mcachicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/2017_35_v17.webp" alt="Still black and white shot of a black person scrunching up their nose to display a grill on their teeth."></div></div></div><div class="swiper-button-prev"></div><div class="swiper-button-next"></div><div class="caption"></div><div class="thumbnails"><div class="swiper-wrapper"><div class="swiper-slide"><img src="https://visit.mcachicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/AJ057.webp" alt="Artwork installed on a white wall. The left side of the artwork is a black and white illustration of Mickey Mouse. The right side of the artwork is a black and white photo of a person with skull makeup on their face."></div><div class="swiper-slide"><img src="https://visit.mcachicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/2017_35_v17.webp" alt="Still black and white shot of a black person scrunching up their nose to display a grill on their teeth."></div></div></div></div> </div> <div id="row-1" class="row-section row-wysiwyg divider" data-title="About the Exhibition" > <div class="wysiwyg-section std-content"><div class="wrap"><h2>About the Exhibition</h2> <p>Across three decades, artist and filmmaker <a href="https://mcachicago.org/about/who-we-are/people/arthur-jafa">Arthur Jafa</a> has developed a singularly dynamic practice comprising films and videos, photographs, and sculptures. Through his multidisciplinary work, Jafa seeks to encompass what he describes as “the full complexity, specificity, beauty, and potentiality of what Black folks have made and continue to make out of the bleak existential circumstance we’ve attended to over the past several hundred years.” Utilizing found imagery, music, and artistic techniques such as montage and collage, he has constructed an extensive assemblage of Black expression, layered and arranged in ways that reveal the diverse and complex realities of Black being.</p> <p><em>Arthur Jafa: Works from the MCA Collection</em> surveys the artist’s output over roughly the last ten years through a selection of artworks held in the MCA’s collection, including his videos <a href="https://mcachicago.org/collection/items/arthur-jafa/4019-apex"><em>APEX</em></a> (2013), <a href="https://mcachicago.org/collection/items/arthur-jafa/4018-love-is-the-message-the-message-is-death"><em>Love is the Message, The Message is Death</em></a> (2016),<em> The White Album</em> (2018), and <a href="https://mcachicago.org/collection/items/arthur-jafa/4059-akingdoncomethas"><em>Akingdoncomethas</em></a> (2018). Accompanying the videos are a few key sculptural and photographic works that further underscore Jafa’s unique approach to visual culture and image making, in which the lines between popular and high culture blur and the personal collides with the political.</p> <p><em>Arthur Jafa: Works from the MCA Collection</em> is organized by René Morales, former James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator, and Jack Schneider, Assistant Curator.</p> </div></div> </div> <div id="row-2" class="row-section row-wysiwyg divider" data-title="About the Artist" > <div class="wysiwyg-section std-content"><div class="wrap"><h2>About the Artist</h2> <p><a href="https://mcachicago.org/about/who-we-are/artists/arthur-jafa">Arthur Jafa</a> (b. 1960, Tupelo, MS; lives in Los Angeles, CA) is an artist and filmmaker. Jafa’s films have garnered acclaim at the Los Angeles, New York, and Black Star Film Festivals, and his artwork is represented in celebrated collections worldwide, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, the High Museum of Art, the Dallas Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Luma Foundation, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, among others.</p> <p>Recent and forthcoming solo exhibitions of Jafa’s work include presentations at Luma Arles, France; Glenstone, Potomac, Maryland; OGR Torino, Italy; Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto, Portugal; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark. In 2019, he received the Golden Lion for the Best Participant of the 58th Venice Biennale, <em>May You Live in Interesting Times</em>.</p> </div></div> </div> <div id="row-3" class="row-section row-wysiwyg " data-title="Related Content" > <div class="wysiwyg-section std-content"><div class="wrap"><h2>Related Content</h2> <h3>Video</h3> <div style="padding: 56.25% 0 0 0; position: relative;"><iframe style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/951981325?h=511962a8b7&color=ffffff&title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div> <p><script src="https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js"></script><br /> Arthur Jafa talks about his practice in this studio visit.<br /> Produced by the MCA</p> </div></div> </div> <div id="row-4" class="row-section row-cta_boxes " data-title="" > <div class="cta-boxes"><a class="box" href="https://visit.mcachicago.org/transcripts/arthur-jafa/"> <div class="col-1"><div class="image" style="background-image: url('https://visit.mcachicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/2017_35_v17.webp')"></div></div> <div class="col-2"> <button>Exhibition Transcripts</button> </div> </a></div> </div> <div id="row-5" class="row-section row-event_links divider" data-title="Related Events" > <div class="event-links"><div class="wrap"><h2>Related Events</h2><a class="event-preview" href="https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-arthur-jafa-theaster-gates/" data-program="talks"><div class="col-1"><div class="image" style="background-image: url(https://visit.mcachicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Arthur-Jafa-cropped.webp)"></div><span class="tags"><span class="tag">Talks</span><br></span></div><div class="col-2"><p class="time">June 1, 2024</p><p class="time">2:00 pm - 3:30 pm</p><p class="notes"></p><p class="title">Talk | Arthur Jafa and Theaster Gates</p></div></a><a class="event-preview" href="https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-on-techno-and-art-robert-hood-arthur-jafa-deforrest-brown-jr/" data-program="music,talks"><div class="col-1"><div class="image" style="background-image: url(https://visit.mcachicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2017_35_v01.webp)"></div><span class="tags"><span class="tag">Music</span><br><span class="tag">Talks</span><br></span></div><div class="col-2"><p class="time">December 7, 2024</p><p class="time">2:00 pm - 3:30 pm</p><p class="notes"></p><p class="title">Talk | On Techno and Art: Robert Hood, Arthur Jafa, and DeForrest Brown Jr.</p></div></a></div></div> </div> <div id="row-6" class="row-section row-wysiwyg " data-title="Funding" > <div class="wysiwyg-section std-content"><div class="wrap"><h2>Funding</h2> <p>Lead support is provided by the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris, the Zell Family Foundation, and Cari and Michael Sacks.</p> <p>Major support is provided by R. H. Defares and Agnes Gund.</p> <p>Generous support is provided by D. 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