Hank Willis Thomas, “Smokin Joe isn’t j’mama” (1978/2006)
RECOMMENDED
From straight documentary to cultural criticism of representation; from celebrations of tradition to biting postmodern play; from sentimentality to irony, this lavish exhibition is the most brilliant survey of recent African-American photography ever to hit Chicago. The contemporary stars–Carrie Mae Weems, Lorna Simpson, Willie Robert Middlebrook, et al.–are in the house, but so are less well-known lights whose works deserve long looks. For stabbing wit, no one is better than Hank Willis Thomas whose “Smokin Joe isn’t j’mama” (1978/2006) captures his chunky subject donning a blue bonnet as he sits leaning over a stack of pancakes with an air of bemusement. For the recovery of lost memories, Thomas comes through again with “The Oft Forgotten Flower Children of Harlem” (1969/2006), which shows the hippies in all their laid-back splendor hanging out on the street–icons of peace and love with a dash of Jimi Hendrix. Thomas does it all with panache, but that is just a slice of this stellar show. (Michael Weinstein)
The Craft of Reparations: DePaul Art Museum Connects Local and International State Violence “Remaking the Exceptional: Tea, Torture, and Reparations | Chicago to Guantánamo” at the DePaul Art Museum examines the question of reparations by tackling two cases: the well-documented tragedy of Chicago police torture and the ongoing international scandal of Guantánamo Bay.
All Too Real: A Review of “Not All Realisms” at The Smart Museum In the compelling exhibition currently on display at the Smart Museum, photographs tell the story of the sixties in Africa. It was a decade of change, resistance, revolution and hard-won independence in many African countries.
