Renée Cox, The Signing, 2017. Digital chromogenic print. 28 7/8 x 84 5/8 inches.
EXTENDED THROUGH SEPTEMBER 18!
Marks Family Gallery North
Marks Family Gallery North – Tito Spiga Exhibition Space
Renée Cox: A Proof of Being presents a selection of the best-known and most celebrated photographs produced by the artist since 1992. The exhibition traces the evolution of Cox’s practice through a series of performative self-portraits, demonstrating the ways in which she has reclaimed art historical themes in order to explore notions of womanhood, beauty, and agency.
On view in the exhibition are photographs from some of the artist’s most recognizable bodies of work, including her groundbreaking Yo Mama series (1992–94) and her monumental photograph The Signing(2017). Renée Cox: A Proof of Being also marks the New York premiere of a recent work, the immersive video installation Soul Culture (2022).
Organized by Monique Long, independent curator.
Gallery Hours:
Friday to Monday, 12-5 PM
FREE
Louise & Howie’s Coffee Bar featuring Tutto Caffè is open in the lobby during gallery hours. Refreshments are not allowed in the galleries but may be enjoyed in the lobby and in our gardens.
-
Renée Cox
Renée Cox is a visual artist, working foremost in photography and video. Her work arises at this intersection of history, race theory, and sexuality. In her practice, Cox works to deconstruct stereotypes, engage the viewer and to challenge their preconceived ideas about gender and race. She explores the possibilities of new and affirming self-representations for Black diasporic peoples as a visual corrective to both art history and history writ large—transforming dispossession into self-possession. By deconstructing the Black female body, she reveals the myths behind it.
Cox began her career as a commercial photographer, working for Condé Nast, and the music and film industries. She turned to fine art after receiving an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 1992. Since then, Cox has worked as a visual artist, educator, curator, lecturer, and a frequent contributor to the New York Times Magazine. The Archives of American Art (Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.) acquired Cox’s personal archive in 2019.
Renée Cox (b. Colgate, Jamaica) lives and works in Harlem, NY and Amagansett, East Hampton. Her work is included in several institutional collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Princeton Art Museum.
Photo: Renée Cox
-
Monique Long
Monique Long is an independent curator and writer based in New York City. Her work focuses on themes related to race, identity, gender, class, and systems of power that are grounded in history, literature, and politics. Long is also a critic who has contributed essays and interviews on contemporary art to publications widely. Her traveling exhibition, Elegies: Still Lifes in Contemporary Art, premiered at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco last year. The show is currently on view at the Telfair Museum in Savannah, Georgia. Upcoming projects include Renee Cox: A Proof of Being and Elizabeth Colomba: Mythologies. moniquelong.com
Photo: Ayana V. Jackson
Sponsors
Lead Sponsors: Dorothy Lichtenstein, Fern and Lenard Tessler
Additional Support: Agnes Gund, Allen Harvey and Ludlow Beckett, Bernard Lumpkin and Carmine Boccuzzi, Lori and John Reinsberg, Jane Wesman and Don Savelson, and Lyn and E.T. Williams, Jr.
Media Partner: Hamptons Magazine
Free gallery admission is sponsored, in part, by Landscape Details.
Museum programs are supported by Crozier Fine Arts, and funding from The Michael Lynne Museum Endowment, and The Melville Straus Family Endowment.
