RACE AND VISIBILITY: AN ONLINE EXHIBITION

Students in Art & Design Professor Lenore Metrick-Chen’s class Curating Race, Fall 2020, studied issues of race and visual culture. Their starting point centered on how race is created by society and power systems: it is not a biological or genetic reality, but a social reality. Focusing on Iowan history, and contextualizing this study with national history, they examined how imagery has been crucial in promoting and in challenging ideas of race. The culmination of the course is their virtual exhibition, Race and Visibility- An Online Exhibition. Each student created a room in the exhibition that stands on its own, and collectively they offer a probing and visually engaging exploration of the representation of race and its consequences. This exhibition will be available online through March 31, 2021.

Screen Capture of Madyson Sklar’s virtual exhibition on “Black Hair: The History and Heterogenous Styling.”

Race and Visibility is curated by Professor Lenore Metrick-Chen’s class “Curating Race” in Fall 2020. Please click on each link below to start a “Guided Tour” of each virtual exhibition. Or, if you opt for “Enter Exhibition” instead, you will be able to click on individual art and objects to get more information and, sometimes, music, videos and sound.

Room 1: Race and Visibility
Room 2: The Implicit Violence of the Confederate Flag by Juhi Boeye 
Room 3: Race and Advertising: The Power of Representation by Chloe Laizure
Room 4: The Harlem Renaissance by Sarah Stephen
Room 5: Words + Images by Brynne Lassiter
Room 6: Black Hair: The History and Heterogeneous Styling by Madyson Sklar
Room 7: Black Culture: Appropriation vs. Appreciation by Hannah Scoonover
Room 8: Solidarity by Victor Peka
Room 9: Interracial and Multiracial Families by Sophia Angelier

Thanks for touring these exhibitions! Students would love your feedback so please send comments to lmetrickchen@drake.edu.