February James in Set It Off at the Parrish Art Museum
Set It Off
Parrish Art Museum
Water Mill, NY
May 22 to July 24, 2022
LEILAH BABIRYE
TORKWASE DYSON
FEBRUARY JAMES
KARYN OLIVIER
KEMEELAH JANAN RASHEED
KENNEDY YANKO
Curated by Racquel Chevremont and Mickalene Thomas—collectively known as Deux Femmes Noires—Set It Off brings together work by Leilah Babirye, Torkwase Dyson, February James, Karyn Olivier, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, and Kennedy Yanko. Often combining multiple elements of paintings, sculpture, installation, sound, and language, each artist in Set It Off engages the monumental, the site-specific, or the immersive in their practice.
While Dyson and Janan Rasheed employ minimalism and the grid to explore how intellectual, environmental, and architectural infrastructures are perceived and negotiated, James and Babirye create figurative work that examines personal and collective histories in relation to identity. Olivier and Yanko make monumentally scaled works that manipulate everyday objects and materials to activate history and memory. The title, Set It Off—to do something significant, to do something with intensity or with a hurricane-like force, or to change an atmosphere for the better—points to the varied, impactful work.