Texas Isaiah - AMERICAN AFRICAN AMERICAN New York Friday, February 8, 2019 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    The Artist and Residency Art Gallery, Inglewood

  • Catalogue Essay

    TEXAS ISAIAH
    Born in Brooklyn, NY
    Lives and works in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland, CA

    Selected museum exhibitions and performances: Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; The Kitchen, New York, NY; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Slought Foundation, Philadelphia, PA; and New Space Center for Photography, Portland, OR

    Referring to himself as a “visual narrator”, Texas Isaiah invested in the possibilities of what it can mean to be seen, loved, and cared for when you have your photograph taken. His work, which notably featured in the Hammer Museum’s 2018 Made in L.A. biennial, explores gender, race, and sexuality by inviting the sitter to participate in the photographic process. “The invitation constructs a space to begin and continue collaborative visual dialogues about legacy, self-empowerment, emotional justice, protection, and topophilia (the affective bond between people and place),” he has written, adding elsewhere, “It is incredibly important for Black and Brown TLGBQIA+ folks to be photographed, and to have a consensual and thoughtful space that promotes personal agency.”

    Texas Isaiah embraces a deeply collaborative and personal approach to photography, taking considerable effort to understand the sitter’s relationship to being photographed. “Texas Isaiah feels you as much as he sees you,” Tiona Nekkia Mcclodde wrote on the artist in ArtForum’s Summer 2018 issue. “After Texas Isaiah makes a portrait of you, you retain an emotional marker. He captures the depth of the moment, but you retain the copyright to your narrative. The focus and care that he gives to Black and queer and trans people acknowledge that we have not always had a consensual space in the history of photography and imagemaking. He brings a proximity to this experience as a Black trans man. He knows that photography can be a violent space for many, including himself. His eye is subjective. This is neither voyeurism nor spectacle; this is a knowing image. This is an image of intimacy and relation.”

57

Space Beneath my Feet

color inkjet archival print
53 1/2 x 35 1/2 in. (135.9 x 90.2 cm.)
Executed in 2018, this work is number 1 from an edition of 5.

Estimate On Request

AMERICAN AFRICAN AMERICAN

New York Selling Exhibition 10 January - 8 February 2019