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Introduction

Working across mediums, Titus Kaphar (born 1976) utilizes deconstructive techniques such as cutting, shredding, stitching, binding, and erasing to confront the scarcity or subversion of Black figures in traditional Western art and address societal concerns such as the legacy of slavery in the United States and the confluence of racial injustice and protest. 

Analogous Colors, Titus Kaphar's first work with Two Palms, portrays a woman whose face depicts a mixture of tenderness and worry as she pulls a child to her chest. Except the child is a void, cut from the work so the silhouette reveals the frame behind. An empty space where a body should be, laying bare the anxieties and horrors of raising a Black child in America. The image is a cropped version from a painting of the same title that the artist exhibited in his show From A Tropical Space at Gagosian Gallery in 2020. The painting was the cover of TIME Magazine’s June 15th, 2020 issue reporting on the death of George Floyd and the subsequent nationwide protests. Cropping the work draws the viewer deeper into the woman’s expression and heightens the emptiness of the missing child. 

Kaphar has held solo exhibitions at The Studio Museum in Harlem, MoMA PS1, MASS MoCA, The Brooklyn Museum, and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, among others. His work is in the collections of many institutions including the Brooklyn Musuem; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Pérez Art Museum, Miami; and Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven. Additionally, Kaphar was a recipient of the 2018 MacArthur Genius Grant; a 2018 Art for Justice Fund grant; a 2016 Robert R. Rauschenberg Artist as Activist grant; and a 2015 Creative Capital grant.

Kaphar is the one of the founders of NXTHVN, a non-profit in New Haven, which aims to provide a more equitable national arts model. NXTHVN creates access to educational and professional resources for the arts by offering fellowships, residencies, and various professional development opportunities for artists, curators and students.

New Works 2

New Works 2 Thumbnails
Titus Kaphar, Analogous Colors

Analogous Colors, 2021
Archival inkjet on aluminum panel
23 1/2 x 24 inches
Edition of 40

 

Inquire
Titus Kaphar, Analogous Colors

Analogous Colors, 2021
Archival inkjet on aluminum panel
23 1/2 x 24 inches
Edition of 40

 

Video

From The New Yorker: The painter and filmmaker Titus Kaphar explores the joys and injustices of Black motherhood, collaging imagery from his work alongside an intimate conversation with Serena Williams.

Selected Exhibitions

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2022     New Alters: Reworking Devotion, Grosvenor Hill, London, UK
2020  Titus Kaphar: From a Tropical Space. Gagosian, New York, NY
2019  One: Titus Kaphar, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
2019  Redaction: A Project by Titus Kaphar and Reginald Dwayne Betts, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY
2019  Language of the Forgotten, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA
2019  Titus Kaphar: Drawing the Blinds, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY
2014  The Vesper Project, Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, Cincinnati, OH
2014  The Vesper Project, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2009  Titus Kaphar: History in the Making, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA
2008  Painting Undone, Red Gallery, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA
2005  New Revolution, Trumbull Gallery, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT

Selected Public Collections

Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY
Burger Collection, Zurich, Switzerland
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR
Equal Justice Initiative Museum, Montgomery, AL
Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Miami, FL
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
National Gallery of Victoria, Sydney, Australia
Seattle Museum of Art, Seattle, WA
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT

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