Whatever Gets You Through the Night

Installation View | Photo Credit: Tim Thayer

WHATEVER GETS YOU
THROUGH THE NIGHT

February 11- August 20, 2022

A popular myth of the 20th and 21st centuries has been that the world used to be a simpler place, and that life in modern times has become increasingly chaotic and complex. The reality is that life has been perpetually hard for most. The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly intensified our daily challenges. Societal challenges become pressing personal struggles: our health and wellness, our economic stability, systemic disenfranchisement, racism, xenophobia, isolation, and more. Amid these personal and shared trials, how do we cope? Where do we go to seek relief? Who or what makes us feel better? How do we heal?

Whatever Gets You Through the Night presents figurative and abstract artworks that convey sources of worry and angst contrasted with the ways many people find daily relief. Nature, spirituality, personal relationships, self-medication, and memorials are among the subjects represented in the selected works. Featured artists include Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Adrian Piper, Derrick Adams, Charles White, Elizabeth Catlett, Dawoud Bey, Kerry James Marshall, Whitfield Lovell, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Carrie Mae Weems, Samuel Levi Jones and more.

Installation Photos of Exhibit

Installation Photography by Tim Thayer

Select Artworks

Click each image to enlarge

Dawoud Bey, “Lakesha, Jackie and Crystal,” 1996, Polacolor ER print. 60” x 92” overall (8 Panels) Individual panel: 30.5” (H) x 23” (W) © Courtesy of the artist.

Whitfield Lovell, “Untitled,” 2003, Graphite on paper with playing card. 12” x 9”. © Whitfield Lovell, Courtesy DC Moore Gallery, NY

Alma Thomas, "Dahlias in the Fall," 1969, Acrylic on canvas. 29.25” x 41.375” © Charles Thomas Lewis

Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, “Tambour II,” 2016, acrylic and oil on canvas. 59”x 59” © Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga.

Paul Keene, “#4 Cape May Series,” 1988, Acrylic on Paper. 30” x 22.25” © Courtesy of Dolan/Maxwell

Kerry James Marshall, “Memento,” 1997, Lithograph. 30.25” x 44.25” © Kerry James Marshall

Mary Lovelace O'Neal, "Racism is Like Rain, Either it is Raining or It Is Gathering Somewhere," 1993, Acrylic on Canvas. 81” x 138”. © Copyright Mary Lovelace O'Neal

Carrie Mae Weems, “Untitled (From the “Kitchen Table” Series),” 1990, Photograph. 24” x 20” © Copyright Carrie Mae Weems

Robert H. Colescott, “Pontchartrain,” 1997, Lithograph. 47” x 118” © Robert H. Colescott and Phyllis Kind Gallery, NY

Samuel Levi Jones, “Doom,” 2021, Mixed Media. 45” x 50” © Copyright of the Artist; Courtesy of Galerie Lelong & Co., New York & Paris.

Barbara Chase Riboud, “Malcolm #8,” 2003, Bronze, Silk, Wool, Plaster, Wax. 74" (H) x 21.66 (W) x 15.75 (D) © BCR

Michele Tejuola Turner, “Fair Housing Act,” 2003, Acrylic on Carved Gourd. 24” x 12” © Michele 'Tejuola' Turner

Lorna Simpson, “III,” Date Unknown, Mixed Media. 13” x 5” x 2.5” © Courtesy of the artist and Salon 94, New York

Betye Saar, “The Door of Deva,” 1979, Mixed Media on Cloth. 10.75” x 10.75” © Estate of Betye Saar, Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

Moira Pernambuco, “From One World to Another I (And This Shall Be My Legacy),” 1998, Photograph. 28.5” x 19” © Reprinted with permission of Moira Pernambuco-Holsten

On view in MW’s Black Box Video Gallery:

Mohau Modisakeng, Zion, 2018, (Single Channel) Triptych video screen, 28 minutes, 55 seconds.

In this film work, South African artist Mohau Modisakeng uses material, metaphor, and the black body to draw parallels between the histories of violence and displacement experienced by Black Africans in South Africa and African Americans in the United States.

Installation View | Photo Credit: Tim Thayer

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