Published 01-16-2025 by Bowdoin College Museum of Art

'Irreplaceable You: Personhood and Dignity in Art, 1980s to Now' Addresses Themes Evoking Our Shared Humanity at Bowdoin College Museum of Art

A detail of a black and white photograph of a figure with dark skin wearing a white lattice crown set against a dark background

Zanele Muholi, Sine IV, Melbourne, Australia, from the series Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail the Dark Lioness), 2020, gelatin silver print. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine. Museum Purchase, Gridley W. Tarbell II Fund. © Zanele Muholi. Courtesy of the artist and Yancey Richardson, New York.

The Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) is delighted to present the exhibition Irreplaceable You: Personhood and Dignity in Art, 1980s to Now, exploring the complexities of human empathy in a world that can seem dominated by acts of violence and dehumanizing rhetoric, and supported by both the relentless 24-hour news cycle and the pervasive influence of the Internet. Curated by Sean Kramer, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow at the BCMA, the exhibition includes more than sixty contemporary works in different media, by artists employing strategies like portraiture, storytelling, naming, and sometimes even traces of their own bodies. Among the artists included are Samira Abbassy, Alfredo Jaar, Glenn Ligon, Titus Kaphar, Hayv Kahraman, and Zanele Muholi. Irreplaceable You will be on view at the Museum from January 16 to June 1, 2025.

Full press release [PDF]

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