Assessment: When is reflection not sufficient? On ‘Exterior’ At Hawkins HQ

Exterior, a bunch exhibition that serves as a homecoming of two Atlanta artists, debuted on the finish of September at Hawkins HQ. Curated by Rosa Duffy, the exhibition introduced Taylor Simmons and Gerald Lovell, two artists born in Atlanta and now dwelling and dealing in New York, residence to affix Jurell Ceyetano in exploring the intersection of private identification, reminiscence and neighborhood — as acknowledged within the exhibition textual content. The curatorial framing that Duffy presents is simple and goals to let the sturdy works communicate for themselves. Nevertheless I left Hawkins HQ with a lingering feeling that the exhibition had been transferring towards one thing however stopped just some steps in need of reaching it. 

What I hold returning to in an try to fulfill this sense that I can’t fairly title is a line from the exhibition textual content: “Exterior serves as an act of resistance throughout a time when Black of us face the counteract of being pushed underground. To be exterior is to refuse erasure and to say one’s proper to exist in public, in neighborhood and on one’s personal phrases.”

Resistance. I left the present questioning: What precisely is being resisted? If it’s the White gaze, I wrestle to see why three Black males led by a Black lady curator in a metropolis often called the Black mecca would really feel compelled to make work in response to White interpretations of Blackness. If that’s the purpose, then I query for whom this present was made.

If the purpose is to problem the onslaught of destructive pictures in American visible tradition, then Jurell Cayetano’s No Love Deep Net (2025) — a nonetheless life that includes weed, capsules and a magnum condom on the armrest of a chair — and Gerald Lovell’s Mr. Gotitall Retains it on Him (2025) — a portray of a Black hand pulling a bottle of Hennessy from a pocket — whereas enjoyable, threat falling into stereotype and trope by propagating concepts of Black debauchery pushed by media and the American system, with out having this dialog furthered with the inclusion of different items. In a present about Black identification and visibility, are medication, a condom and alcohol current as a result of the artists are Black, or are they Black as a result of they take part in these items? With out further items to additional the dialog, these questions muddy the interpretation.

Wanting extra broadly for a thread tying these artists collectively, what I discovered was figuration. The historical past of figuration and Black identification is lengthy — it’s an important software to debate and illustrate totally different sides of visibility through which figuration turns into visibility itself. Throughout the Harlem Renaissance, figuration grew to become a political software to counter racist caricatures. By the ’90s, the politics of illustration expanded not solely how the Black physique was seen but in addition the way it was made. The artists in Exterior clearly draw from this lengthy historical past, each visually and thematically, however, once more, I discovered myself questioning what precisely is being resisted? What is that this exhibition making an attempt so as to add to this historical past and ongoing dialog?

The exhibition’s framing appears to hunt a rigidity between thinker and scholar Édouard Glissant’s idea of the “proper to opacity” with the act of insisting on presence — two distinct modes of freedom: freedom from visibility versus freedom by way of visibility. The best to opacity is the best to not be absolutely legible to others, and right here it’s tried by way of figuration. To insist on one’s presence is to need recognition — a declaration of eager to be seen. This insistence on visibility is echoed within the exhibition textual content which states, “Exterior signifies presence, visibility and participation, an assertion of 1’s place on the planet, particularly in areas the place visibility is commonly denied.” This isn’t an unimaginable stability, however Exterior — in making an attempt to showcase each directly — dangers not doing sufficient of both. To its credit score, the present works inside the constraints of house and scope, but these limits solely heighten the necessity for each inclusion to sharpen the dialog.

I felt that Simmons’ work resonates essentially the most with this duality. His figures hover between presence and disappearance. In work like World Spherical Me (2025), jazz legend and Guggenheim Fellow Charles Mingus takes middle stage. A determine to the best of Mingus seems with pores and skin hardening into brick, physique pushed and pulled till close to dissolution into the background: Blink and also you’ll miss them. Frontin’ (2025) takes an identical method, but this time that includes extra absolutely rendered faces. The main determine faces the viewers together with his unconcerned gaze simply sufficient to pose the query: Is he’s wanting previous me or instantly at me? 

Simmons’ use of collage layering oil, spray paint and picture transfers creates an impact that concurrently comes collectively and likewise destabilizes the aircraft. It’s as if differing worlds fold in on themselves, every layer hoping to show its existence — craving to be seen by way of the one above it. His figures are pushed sufficient to obscure them, whereas their gazes confront the viewer, as in Final Time I Checked (2025).

Lovell’s work within the present, however, leans additional into the best to opacity than an assertion of presence. His signature impasto peaks catch and scatter the sunshine, obscuring facial options whereas sustaining a bodily presence. In Lunatico (2025), the viewer is positioned inside a jazz membership, dealing with a quartet mid-performance. Lovell offers his White figures readability whereas the Black brass participant’s face is rendered in thick, valley-like strokes, ignoring specificity however honoring the best way mild performs throughout its floor.

But Lovell’s figures don’t confront the viewer, intrude in house or assert themselves as instantly as these of Kerry James Marshall or Titus Kaphar. This isn’t a critique on Lovell’s work however as a substitute raises questions inside the curatorial framing. It feels as if the dialog is half shaped — a sentence as a substitute of a paragraph. The present is scratching on the floor of that deeper rigidity that it by no means fairly appears to achieve.

The work of Cayetano, in contrast, leans utterly into asserting presence. Working from his cellphone’s photograph gallery, he embraces the digicam’s pure distortion. Work like Forces (2025) and Sound Desk (2025) reinterpret the concept of out of doors and this idea of uncertainty of Blackness in America and as a substitute serves as documentation. In his works, he presents proof of an existence of uninhibited Blackness that takes up house and is unbothered by societal conventions and the influence of the White gaze. His figures are rendered easily; there’s a heat to the figures’ pores and skin and an software of paint that feels as if one is with him in particular person, recounting a reminiscence by his facet.

Even after sitting with the present I hold questioning: What’s the last takeaway? Does Exterior merely retrace the acquainted conversations round Black visibility and resistance that we observe in Atlanta time and time once more? The present gestures towards the dialogues between opacity and visibility, resistance and relaxation, however by no means fairly pushes the bounds of anyone place. The result’s a mirrored image that’s placing however in the end reads as too secure, too contained — a brushstroke that feels too broad for a dialog so complicated. It mirrors our current situations — Rosa Duffy’s curation and Hawkins HQ definitely accomplish that — however after the reflection fades, I’m left wishing for an exhibition that is ready to think about one thing past the mirror itself.

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Montenez Lowery is a multidisciplinary Black American artist working in Atlanta and using pinhole pictures to discover identification, cultural reminiscence and the complexities of interpersonal relationships. Lowery is excited about photographic materials and course of and the way they are often included to counterpoint the themes he tackles. He has earned a BFA in pictures from the Ernest G. Welch Faculty of Artwork and Design at Georgia State College. He was awarded The Larry and Gwen Walker Award and shortlisted for the Sony World Pictures Awards Scholar Competitors.