Exhibition
Sonya Clark: We Are Each Other, highlights thirty years of artmaking dedicated to the Black experience in America. The exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of the communal artmaking projects that form the heart of the artist’s pioneering creative practice. Accompanied by a selection of Clark’s photographs, prints, and sculpture, the exhibition will feature five of Clark’s large-scale, collaborative projects, including her barrier-breaking The Hair Craft Project (2014) and the ongoing performance initiated in 2015, Unraveling.
Working with a wide range of emotionally resonant materials and everyday objects—from cotton cloth and human hair to school desks and bricks—Clark encourages audiences to confront the country’s historical imbalances and racial injustices through material transformation. At the same time, Clark celebrates the complexities of the Black cultural experience. The uses of traditional craft materials, her applied knowledge of global craft techniques, and the communal collaborations that are integral to the integrity of her art are among the many ways Clark represents and honors the legacies of the African diaspora in Black life.
The Hair Craft Project: Hairstyles on Canvas, 2013
The Beaded Prayers Project, 1998–ongoing, fabric, beads, thread.
Sonya Clark: We are Each Other, photo Jenna Bascom; courtesy the Museum of Arts and Design
The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) champions contemporary makers across creative fields and presents the work of artists, designers, and artisans who apply the highest level of ingenuity and skill. Since the Museum’s founding in 1956 by philanthropist and visionary Aileen Osborn Webb, MAD has celebrated all facets of making and the creative processes by which materials are transformed, from traditional techniques to cutting-edge technologies. Today, the Museum’s curatorial program builds upon a rich history of exhibitions that emphasize a cross-disciplinary approach to art and design, and reveals the workmanship behind the objects and environments that shape our everyday lives. MAD provides an international platform for practitioners who are influencing the direction of cultural production and driving twenty-first-century innovation, and fosters a participatory setting for visitors to have direct encounters with skilled making and compelling works of art and design. For more information, visit madmuseum.org.