LOOKS OF FREEDOM, EXPO CHICAGO

Sept 19 – Sept 22, 2019

A special projects exhibition at Expo Chicago in collaboration with For Freedoms

Curated by Modou Dieng and Michelle Woo

Looks of Freedom is a visual essay. An exploration of fiction, fantasy and the future. The exhibition and performances offer a stage to unpack and repack notions of blackness, brownness, queerness and belonging. Giving these stories a form, resonance and connection.

Coming from varied diasporas, while working through an intimate lens, each artist incorporates a series of mediums, appropriations and experiences to find a sense of self within a global chaos.

Zoë Buckman, NIA II, 2019

One year after their fall 2018 50 State Initiative campaign—noted by Time as the largest creative collaboration in our nation’s history—For Freedoms has teamed up with Blackpuffin Curatorial as part of the International Exposition of Contemporary & Modern Art to present Looks of Freedom, a visual essay curated by Modou Dieng and Michelle Woo. An exploration of fiction, fantasy, and the future, the exhibition and its accompanying performances offer a stage to unpack and repack notions of blackness, brownness, queerness, and belonging in order to give these stories a form, resonance, and connection.

From Left to Right: Kellie Romany, Centered, 2017; Malick Welli, Untitled (1) Spiritual Phenomena Series, 2018; Guanyu Xu, Facing North, Looking West, 2019.

Left: Demian DinéYazhí, Tradition Is Not The Enemy, 2016 Right: Eric Gottesman, HIWOT, 2000

Artist List

Zoë Buckman

Demian Dineyazhi

Eric Gottesman

Jamaal Peterman

Kellie Romany

Malick Welli

Guanyu Xu