Enlivened by the energy of Frieze Week LA, I went to The KNOW Contemporary to view curators Knowledge Bennett and Charles Moore’s group exhibition, “BLACK.” To my surprise, I’d stumbled into the installation’s culminating event, a panel discussion with its artists and gallerists. Seated amongst the art world’s most prominent innovators, I was moved to witness a panel of Black creators discussing blackness as both cultural identity and sublime aesthetic.

This multifaceted lens animates “BLACK,” which feels both suspended in cosmic space and grounded in political reality, granting it a uniquely ethereal quality. As viewers entered the gallery, we were met with three works by Bennett (who is included in the show). Painted with acrylic and diamond dust on canvas, they are presented in succession, their geometric symbolism and incandescent surfaces composing a delightfully monotonal abyss. Directly to their right, Bennett’s How Long Does it Take to Make Devil? (2021) reads “MAY 25, 2020,” referencing the date of George Floyd’s murder, and the crest of a cultural awakening. This juxtaposition of the political and the transcendent characterize the exhibition, which seeks not to reconcile the complexity of blackness, but surrender to its expanse.

Installation View. BLACK at The KNOW Contemporary. Photo courtesy of Artsy

Continuing through the gallery space, we encountered the paintings, mixed-media works, and sculpture of nine Black contemporary artists which meditate on the darkest hue and the diaspora it has come to represent. While some works depicted Black people and the social realities that shape them, others were decidedly abstract, engaging black on purely aesthetic terms. It is this kaleidoscopic gaze on blackness—as color, culture, and consciousness— that lends the exhibition its particular magic.

Situated within a discursive landscape that seeks facile solutions to our racial woes, “BLACK” represents a historic departure. By boldly embracing multiplicity, the group exhibition creates space for Black artists to explore the complex—and often competing—truths of their existence. It is in this acceptance of manifold truths that we might understand blackness in its totality — as unapologetically and infinitely abundant.

BLACK

The KNOW Contemporary

422 S Alameda St., Los Angeles, CA 90013

Exhibition Dates: Feb 16 – Feb 20, 2022