An art exhibition in San Francisco is celebrating the beauty of Black Women at rest.
Titled Resting Our Eyes, the exhibition is located at San Francisco’s Institute of Contemporary Art. It is curated by Tahirah Rasheed and Autumn Breon and will be open through June 25.
The exhibition’s theme is focused on the power of Black women exercising their right to leisure.
“Through embodied experiences of space and temporality, spectrums of abstraction and representation, these artists contend with the limitations and failures of the colonial gaze by casting Black women at the center of their visions through leisure and adornment. Collectively, these works invite us to see Black women as fully realized and free,” reads a statement on the exhibition.
The statement adds that the exhibition aims to represent the importance of Black women expressing their agency in the face of systems aimed at limiting their respite.
“Resting Our Eyes highlights these mechanisms for freedom and reminds us of the visual vocabulary of those practices. These reminders help us imagine and affirm beauty, rest, and self-expression as radical and necessary acts,” reads the statement.
Speaking to 48 Hills, artist Sadie Barnette shared the story behind her photo “Easy in the Den” that is included in the exhibition.
“It’s my Auntie Viv at her home in Cleveland. She was a very talented seamstress and designer who made the cushions on the couch and probably some elements of her outfit,” Barnette said. “She’s relaxing in an environment she’s created with her skills and attention to beauty.”
The Resting Our Eyes exhibition features works across mixed media, video, photography, textile, sculpture, and painting from a total of 20 Black artists.
Artists featured in the exhibition include Simone Leigh, Mickalene Thomas, and Carrie Mae Weems, Leila Weefur, Traci Bartlow, Lorna Simpson, and Lava Thomas.
As part of the exhibition’s launch, curators Rasheed and Breon co-designed a jewelry collection with the Black woman-owned brand Sucré.