The Shape of Blackness

A Virtual Exhibition of South African and US Artists

THE SHAPE OF BLACKNESS is a virtual art exhibition and related programming that highlights expressions of contemporary Blackness as envisioned by South African and U.S. artists. In choosing these two nations, we seek perspectives from the global north and south, Black majority and Black minority nations. SHAPE is inspired by the Rorschact inkblot, which even in its most mundane form, is a useful framing device for a group show. It conveys both symmetry and individual interpretation of an entire picture: “when you look at contemporary Blackness, what do you see?”

By no means do we think that our histories and contexts are the same, or even drawn from the same source. This is where the bigger, more individual interpretation of the picture comes into place. What Blackness represents, the story that it begins to tell–is completely and rightfully subjective. Your history, your outlook inform your perspective.