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MoMA PS1 presents Deana Lawson, the first museum survey dedicated to the work of the celebrated photographer, on view from April 14 through September 5, 2022. For more than 15 years, Deana Lawson (b. 1979, Rochester, NY) has been exploring and challenging conventional representations of Black life through photography, drawing on a wide spectrum of photographic languages, including the family album, studio portraiture, staged tableaux, documentary pictures, and appropriated images. Through a selection of more than 50 works from 2004 to the present, including photographs that were featured in PS1’s signature exhibition series Greater New York in 2010 and 2015, Deana Lawson features the full range of the artist’s career to date and establishes a narrative arc of her expansive vision for the first time.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated scholarly catalogue, featuring the voices and perspectives of a variety of scholars, historians, and writers: exhibition curators Peter Eleey and Eva Respini; writers Kimberly Juanita Brown, Tina M. Campt, Alexander Nemerov, and Greg Tate; and a conversation between Deana Lawson and photography scholar Deborah Willis.
Deana Lawson is co-organized by MoMA PS1 and ICA/Boston. Organized by Peter Eleey, Curator-at-Large, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing and Shanghai, and Eva Respini, Barbara Lee Chief Curator, ICA/Boston, with Anni Pullagura, Curatorial Assistant, ICA/Boston.
Deana Lawson is made possible with major support from the Henry Luce Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Significant support for the MoMA PS1 presentation is provided by Robert and Jamie Soros. Additional funding is provided by Jarl and Pamela Mohn.
Press Kit
Images
Installation view of exhibition Deana Lawson on view at MoMA PS1 from April 14 to September 5, 2022. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo: Steven Paneccasio
Installation view of exhibition Deana Lawson on view at MoMA PS1 from April 14 to September 5, 2022. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo: Steven Paneccasio
Deana Lawson. Black Gold (“Earth turns to gold, in the hands of the wise,” Rumi). 2021. Pigment print with embedded hologram. Courtesy the artist; Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York; and David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles. © Deana Lawson
Deana Lawson. Coulson Family. 2008. Pigment print. Courtesy the artist; Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York; and David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles. © Deana Lawson
Deana Lawson. Hair Advertisement. 2005. Pigment print. Courtesy the artist; Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York; and David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles. © Deana Lawson
Deana Lawson. Nation. 2018. Pigment print and collaged photograph. Courtesy the artist; Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York; and David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles. © Deana Lawson
Deana Lawson. Roxie and Raquel New Orleans, Louisiana. 2010. Pigment print. 35 × 43 inches (88.9 × 109.2 cm). Collection of the artist. Courtesy the artist; Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York; and David Kordansky, Los Angeles. © Deana Lawson