CRY OF VICTORY AND SHORT WALKS TO FREEDOM

Oct 10 – Nov 10, 2018

A group exhibition presented in partnership with For Freedom's 50 State Initiative

Curated by Modou Dieng at projects+gallery

Aram Han Sifuentes - Messages from My Ancestors to Our Colonizers (The Gaze is Not Our Own), 2017

Featuring work by 14 artists, Cry of Victory and Short Walks to Freedom celebrates creative gestures as small yet impactful victories in the context of a dire political administration that is actively cutting funding for the arts. Together, the show collectively aims to provide a renewed sense of optimism and the potential for dialogue, progress and change.

Curated by Modou Dieng with an eye to bridging contemporary and past struggles, the exhibition include photographs by Kwame Brathwaite, dating from the mid-60s, as well as pieces by thirteen contemporary artists — Derrick Adams, Bunny Burson, Jen Everett, Shabez Jamal, Rodolfo Marron III, Fabrice Monteiro, Esmaa Mohamoud, Alexis Peskine, Michele Pred, Aram Han Sifuentes, Xaviera Simmons, Hank Willis Thomas and Kennedy Yanko.

Cry of Victory and Short Walks to Freedom was also accompanied by an exhibition catalogue and three artist designed billboards which were placed throughout St. Louis, MO.

Select pages from the Cry Of Victory And Short Walks To Freedom catalog

Three artist-designed billboards — positioned at various locations throughout the city — also complement the exhibition. Designed by Hank Willis Thomas, Michele Pred and Derrick Adams, the billboards encourage civic discourse in a time of political urgency.

Cry of Victory and Short Walks to Freedom is organized in partnership with For Freedoms, a platform founded by activist artists Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman in 2016 to foster dialogue about race, art, education, advertising and politics in the United States. “For Freedoms” references on President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s notion of four universal freedoms: freedom of speech and expression, the freedom to worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear, which inspired a series of paintings in 1943 by Norman Rockwell.

Artist List

Derrick Adams
Kwame Brathwaite
Bunny Burson
Jen Everett
Shabez Jamal
Rodolfo Marone
Fabrice Monteiro
Esmaa Mohamoud
Oscar Murillo
Alexis Peskine
Michele Pred
Aram Han Sifuentes
Xaviera Simmons
Hank Willis Thomas
Kennedy Yanko