Titus Kaphar
– Artist’s Website –
“Where were the conceptual artists when the hoses were being turned on people in Birmingham in the 60s?” asks artist Adam Pendleton from his Manhattan studio. This thought led Pendleton to create the multimedia installation of paintings on canvas and large-scale vinyl works that repeated the phrase “Black Lives Matter” all over the walls of the Belgian Pavilion at the 56th annual Venice Biennale. “I began by writing the language in very discreet ways on pieces of paper in my studio,” explains the artist. “I was trying to see how this movement could exist within my work.”
Since the start of the internet-driven #BlackLivesMatter movement in 2012, following the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin and amplified by innumerable incidents since, artists like Pendleton have sought to represent its issues visually and conceptually—from police brutality to structural inequality to trans violence.
The Black Lives Matter website states: “Every 28 hours a black man, woman, or child is murdered by police or vigilante law enforcement in America.” It’s a reality that has pulled the #BlackLivesMatter movement from social media to the streets. It is also what has motivated a multitude of artists to integrate themes of social justice directly relating to Black Lives Matter into their work.