Syms's personal reflection on the mechanisms of production of
black identity resonates poignantly with the works in the group exhibition, which challenge, with a rebellious attitude, the boundaries — physical and psychological — of the space assigned to femininity.
Gilliam's formalist dialogue with the politics of the times has always
resonated with the 35 - year old artist Rashid Johnson, whose work often deals directly with issues of
black identity.
Animated by flânerie — the idle, detached observation of street life that 19th - century writers associated with the rise of modern cities, that was an important strategy of the French Impressionists — and making reference to African tribal art, Ward's oeuvre
resonates with the Barnes collection and speaks with penetrating insight and imagination to a broad range of subjects, including
black history and culture, the dynamics of power and politics, and Caribbean diaspora
identity.