Artists gathered at LACMA for a portrait commemorating their inclusion in “Imagining Black Diasporas: 21st-Century Art and Poetics,” on view through July 27. During the photo shoot, there was a special request to listen to Roberta Flack (the singer had died two days earlier). The entire group sang along as “Killing Me Softly With His Song” echoed through the galleries.
The exhibition introduces 42 new acquisitions for LACMA as part of the museum’s ongoing work to expand its program and collection of art by African-descendant artists. It’s been an honor to bring this exhibition to life with the work of 60 multigenerational artists based around the world. At the opening, artists caught up and met for the first time, potentially creating new diasporic networks of exchange and connectivity.
—Dhyandra Lawson, Andy Song associate curator of Contemporary Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art