(Left to Right): 1. Essence Harden. Courtesy Essence Harden. 2. Deborah Roberts, “Jamal,” 2020. Mixed media collage on canvas. 65 x 45 inches. Artwork © Deborah Roberts. Courtesy the artist; Vielmetter Los Angeles; and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. Image courtesy The Contemporary Austin.
Deborah Roberts’s exhibition I’m critiques notions of beauty, race, and identity in contemporary society through the depiction of Black children. Her large-scale mural Little man, little man (2020), installed on the walls of the Museum’s expansive lobby, features collaged images of a young Black male figure in animated expressions of joy. Join curator Essence Harden for a lively discussion about Deborah Roberts’s mural at CAAM.
Speakers
Essence Harden is a visual arts curator and program manager at the California African American Museum and an independent arts writer. Essence has curated exhibitions at California African American Museum (CAAM), Antenna Gallery (New Orleans), Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), Human Resources (Los Angeles), Oakland Museum of California, UTA Artist Space, El Segundo Museum of Art (ESMoA), Subliminal Projects, Eduardo Secci Contemporary (2022), the Orange County Museum of Art (2022), amongst others. Essence is a contributor to New York Times Magazine (2022), the Los Angeles Times Magazine: Image, SSENSE, Art21, Contemporary Art Review LA (CARLA), Artsy, LALA, Cultured Magazine, Performa Magazine, and SFAQ: International Arts and Culture and has written catalog entries for Prospect 5: Yesterday we said tomorrow; Brave New Worlds: Exploration of Space: Palm Springs Art Museum; and What Needs to Be Said: Hallie Ford Fellows Exhibition. Essence has also served as an art consultant for film and television. Essence is a 2018 recipient of The Creative Capital, Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant, and a 2020 Annenberg Innovation Lab Civic Media Fellow.
Essence graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts in History and received their Master of Arts from the Department of African American Studies at UC Berkeley. Essence is a Ph.D. Candidate (ABD) in African Diaspora Studies at UC Berkeley.
Essence resides in Los Angeles, CA.
Other Programs in this Series
Sat
19
Mar
DEBORAH ROBERTS: I'M BOOK SIGNING
March 19, 2022
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
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Sun
10
Apr
FAMILY FUN SUNDAY: FREEZE FRAME COLLAGE @ CAAM