Let’s Have a Talk: Black Artists from the CMA Collection

Bringing together a multigenerational group of 15 Black artists working in and around abstraction, Let’s Have a Talk pushes against longstanding expectations that work by Black artists must present a clear message about their racial identity and experience, and it celebrates their crucial, yet often dismissed, role in abstract art.

Featuring sculpture, prints, paintings, and photography from the CMA Collection, this exhibition presents a range of abstract styles including Oliver Lee Jackson’s expressive, gestural mark making, Lorna Simpson’s ambiguous forms, and McArthur Binion’s minimalist designs.

Titled after conceptual artist Adrian Piper’s socially provocative print included in the show, Let’s Have a Talk is an open-ended invitation to start a conversation about Black artists' contributions to modern and contemporary art history and the many facets of abstraction. Within these discussions other dialogues may emerge — between artists, between unique objects, between viewer and image, and within ourselves.