February James, Electricity Runs Through Our Fingers, 2021
Inaugural group exhibition:
What's Going On
Opening October 29, 2022
What’s Going On brings together more than 190 works by 50 artists who are responding to pressing social and political issues that continue to affect society today.
The title of the show references Marvin Gaye’s seminal 1971 album of the same name and its anthemic titular single, which decried injustice and other social ills. Gaye was a student at the long-closed Randall Junior High School, which has been converted by the New York-based firm Beyer Blinder Belle Architects to house the new museum.
Keith Haring’s Untitled (Against All Odds), 1989, introduces the exhibition. This pivotal series of 20 works depicts a dystopia that demonstrates Haring’s lifelong concern with environmental destruction, oppression, and illness. In a handwritten inscription that accompanies these drawings, Haring cites the influence of Marvin Gaye’s album What’s Going On, which he listened to endlessly while creating these artworks. The series was dedicated by Haring to Don Rubell’s brother Steve Rubell, who passed away from AIDS in 1989 at age 45.
List of Artists:
El Anatsui / Natalie Ball / Hernan Bas / Christian Boltanski / Cecily Brown / Miriam Cahn / Maurizio Cattelan / Jonathan Lyndon Chase / Robert Colescott / Karon Davis / Noah Davis / Matthew Day Jackson / Leonardo Drew / Marlene Dumas / Chase Hall / Keith Haring / Barkley Hendricks / Jenny Holzer / Huang Yong Ping / February James / Rashid Johnson / Josh Kline / Glenn Ligon / Juanita McNeely / John Miller / Oscar Murillo / Christopher Myers / Paulo Nazareth / Cady Noland / Catherine Opie / Christina Quarles / Jamea Richmond-Edwards / Tschabalala Self / Gary Simmons / Vaughn Spann / Hank Willis Thomas / Mickalene Thomas / Genesis Tramaine / Rosemarie Trockel / Kaari Upson / Andra Ursuta / Danh Vo / Kara Walker / John Waters / Carrie Mae Weems / Kehinde Wiley / Kennedy Yanko / Purvis Young / Lisa Yuskavage / Cajsa von Zeipel