ST. LOUIS, Sept. 2, 2022—The Saint Louis Art Museum’s next installment in the “Currents” series will feature the work of artist Meleko Mokgosi. The Botswana-born artist creates large-scale, figurative and text-based paintings that draw from traditions of history painting and cinema. These works deftly probe systems of knowledge production and the politics of representation.
The free exhibition opens Sept. 30. It will be on view in Gallery 250 and the Gary C. Werths and Richard Frimel Gallery 249 through Feb. 19, 2023.
Founded in 1978, the “Currents” series serves as a laboratory for emerging and mid-career artists to create and exhibit new work. Featured artists have included Matthew Buckingham, Dale Chihuly, Leonardo Drew, Brian Eno, Ellen Gallagher, Frank Gehry, Donald Judd, Julie Mehretu, Richard Serra and Cindy Sherman.
In “Currents 122,” Mokgosi will exhibit work from his new project, “Spaces of Subjection,” which explores space as a metaphor, theoretical device and social construct to question conventional ideas of subjecthood and subject formation. The exhibition examines subjection and subjectivity as they pertain to his perspectives on African, African American and Black life. The works engage with political forces and systems of power that affect people’s daily existence and contribute to how racial, gender and other differences between identities are endowed with significance and learned from childhood.
Mokgosi’s unique painting process contributes to how he develops meaning. He begins on a stretched canvas prepared not with the customary white ground but with a base layer of clear gesso, a thin, transparent primer that stiffens the canvas. Instead of adding white to create highlights, Mokgosi starts with the darkest shadow and then removes paint with brushes and cloths to create areas of highlight, like drawing with charcoal.
The works in the “Spaces of Subjection” series differ from Mokgosi’s others in that they are primarily monochromatic. The monochromatic tones of these works result in images that—like black-and-white photographs or films—are difficult to pin to a particular period, appearing both in and out of time.
“Currents 122” is curated by Hannah Klemm, associate curator of modern and contemporary art, and Molly Moog, research assistant for modern and contemporary art.
CONTACT: Matthew Hathaway, 314.655.5493, matthew.hathaway@slam.org
