TAMPA, FL (PNAN) – Closing Sunday, October 23, 2022 at the Tampa Museum of Art, “Dawoud Bey & Carrie Mae Weems: In Dialogue” brings together a focused selection of work from a period of over forty years by these most important and influential photo-based artists.
Arranged in five sections, the exhibit presents the two artists’ work in thematic pairings, emphasizing both their mutual concerns and distinct artistic approaches: Early Work, Broadening the Scope, Resurrecting Black Histories, Memorial and Requiem, and Revelations in the Landscape. Also featured in the exhibition are videos by them that show their approaches to the moving photographic image as an extension of their still photographic series.
Both born in 1953, Bey and Weems came of age during a period of dramatic change in the American social landscape and over five decades, they have explored and addressed similar themes: race, class, representation, and systems of power, creating work that is grounded in specific African American events and realities while simultaneously speaking to a multitude of human conditions.
From the outset of their careers, both Bey and Weems have operated from a deep social commitment to participate in, describe and define culture. In seeking to express themselves fully, both artists have expanded possibilities within photography and video to address their chosen subjects.
Each engaged in the material and conceptual developments in the art world that were gaining prominence beginning in the 1970s, they have continued to push their own work forward, their art and approach have inspired notable younger artists such as LaToya Ruby Frazier, Lyle Ashton Harris, Mickalene Thomas and Hank Willis Thomas.
For more information, see www.tampamuseum.org.