Conceptions of White
MacKenzie Art Gallery
Aug 6 - Nov 13, 2022

My work File: A Primer is part of Conceptions of White, a traveling exhibition from MacKenzie Art Gallery “offering context and nuanced perspectives that help viewers grapple with contemporary configurations of White identity.”

The exhibition examines the origins, travel, and present reality of “Whiteness” as a concept and a racial invention that classifies degrees of civility/humanity. Select historical objects and artworks illustrate White origin myths within their historical context, revealing Whiteness as a North American, settler-colonial invention of the seventeenth century, created alongside “Blackness” and “Aboriginality.” The contemporary artists in this exhibition complicate this historical foundation by examining how these acts of racialization are felt today through concepts of White guilt, anxiety, supremacy, benevolence, fragility, and power. [...] The exhibition is framed through a biracial lens with both curators seeking a clearer understanding of their own relationship to Whiteness.

The show also includes Artist once known, Jeremy Bailey, Deanna Bowen, Jennifer Chan, Nicholas Galanin, Ken Gonzales-Day, Arthur Jafa, Michèle Lalonde, Barbara Meneley, Robert Morris, Nell Painter, Howardena Pindell, Hiram Powers, and Fred Wilson.

Photos: Casey Shaw

Many thanks to the curators, John G. Hampton and Lillian O’Brien Davis.

8.6.22