The reopening of the Studio Museum in Harlem, after seven years of construction, arrives with dazzling alumni and collection exhibitions. Among the highlights is a 40-image photographic work, Art Is…, by the late, great Lorraine O’Grady. The series places viewers along Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard during the 1983 African American Day Parade, inviting us to witness the neighborhood’s vibrancy through O’Grady’s incisive lens.
The 57-year-old New York institution Studio Museum, dedicated to artists of African descent, inaugurated its new building in a press preview today, November 6, ahead of its grand public reopening next Saturday in Harlem. The exhibition also features Lorraine O'Grady's Art Is... at the entrance of one of the galleries in the From Now: A Collection in Context exhibition.
Last December, the world lost the fearless and trailblazing artist and writer Lorraine O’Grady. Working across forms, she challenged conventions, celebrated beauty, and altered the cultural landscape. Here, DK Nnuro considers her work through the lens of translation and transcreation.
In an article written for Libération, Sonya Faure explores the life and work of Lorraine O’Grady, whose first solo exhibition in France is being held at Mariane Ibrahim Parisian space. Known for her powerful performances and photographic collages, O’Grady used art to critique racism, colonial legacies, and the marginalization of Black women in the art world.
Lorraine O’Grady’s Paris exhibition traces her visionary career, affirming her Black feminist perspective and rejection of binaries. Featuring iconic series like Rivers, First Draft, Body is the Ground of My Experience, and Announcement of a New Persona, it reveals her inventive self-mythology and enduring influence on contemporary art and identity.
Lorraine O’Grady, a pioneering African-American conceptual artist, is celebrated in her first French solo exhibition at Mariane Ibrahim Gallery. Spanning four decades, the show features iconic works like Mlle Bourgeoise Noire, Rivers, First Draft, and The Knight series, revealing her profound engagement with identity, hybridity, and cultural critique.
M Le Magazine du Monde features Lorraine O’Grady in its “Recadrages” issue by Clément Ghys, celebrating her groundbreaking legacy. Honored with exhibitions at the Palais de Tokyo and Mariane Ibrahim Paris, O’Grady—known as “Mlle Bourgeoise Noire”—transformed art with her 1983 Harlem performance Art Is..., affirming Black visibility and cultural pride.
In Le Monde, Philippe Dagen reflects on Lorraine O’Grady’s first solo exhibition in Paris, but also the last one she prepared herself, as she passed last December, 2024. Renowned as Mlle Bourgeoise Noire, O’Grady’s fearless performances and surrealist-infused works expose colonial contradictions and gendered power, cementing her legacy as a transformative voice in contemporary art.
The Palais de Tokyo’s Joie collective – Apprendre à flamboyer ! celebrates joy as a form of resistance and solidarity. Featuring artists like Lorraine O’Grady and Thomas Hirschhorn, the exhibition merges art and activism. O’Grady’s 1983 performance Art Is...—framing Harlem paradegoers as art—embodies this empowering call for collective engagement.
In Eight Verses for Lorraine O’Grady, Camille Bacon honors the artist’s irreducible spirit and transformative impact on Black feminist art. Blending poetry and reflection, Bacon celebrates O’Grady’s boundary-defying practice—from Mlle Bourgeoise Noire to her curatorial work—affirming her lasting influence on future generations of artists and thinkers.
Andil Gosine shares with Small Axe his deeply personal experiences with Lorraine O’Grady, a singular force in his life whose influence has shaped his thinking and artistic practice since 2010. Reflecting on their years of collaboration, Gosine begins his tribute by recalling the creation of the video Landscape (Western Hemisphere) for the 2010 Buffalo art biennial Beyond/In Western New York, using it as a lens to explore O’Grady’s unique creative process.
Lorraine O’Grady (1934–2024), the conceptual and performance artist who transformed how audiences understand race, gender, and identity, died at 90. Beginning her art career at 45, she created groundbreaking works like Cutting Out The New York Times and championed Black female subjectivity, while her incisive writing and performances challenged systemic erasure and segregation in the art world.
Lorraine O’Grady (1934–2024), the trailblazing conceptual artist, used performance, collage, and writing to confront the art world’s racial and gender hierarchies. From her first collages in Cutting Out the New York Times to the fearless persona Mademoiselle Bourgeoise Noire, O’Grady challenged Black artists and institutions alike, blending wit, audacity, and Black feminist insight to transform how audiences see identity, creativity, and self-expression.
Lorraine O’Grady (1934–2024), a one-of-a-kind conceptual artist, challenged racism, sexism, and cultural hierarchies through fearless performances, photography, and writing. After early careers as an economist and rock critic, she turned to art in her 40s, creating provocative works like Mlle Bourgeoise Noire. A true risk-taker, O’Grady redefined the boundaries of art and identity, leaving an indelible mark on contemporary culture.
Lorraine O’Grady (1934–2024), an indefatigable conceptual artist whose work critiqued definitions of identity, died in New York on Friday aged 90. O’Grady confronted the structures of race, gender, and class while celebrating self-definition, dialogue, and the humanity at art’s core.
Lorraine O’Grady (1934–2024), a pioneering conceptual and performance artist, used her work to challenge racism, sexism, and class hierarchies while centering Black women’s voices. Known for her powerful persona Mlle Bourgeoise Noire and her iconic performance Art Is . . ., O’Grady redefined how identity, language, and art intersect in the fight for visibility and change.
Lorraine O’Grady (1934–2024) was a groundbreaking conceptual and performance artist whose work confronted race, gender, and power with incisive wit and emotion. From Mlle Bourgeoise Noire to Art Is . . ., her art and writing redefined Black female subjectivity and inspired generations to see themselves as part of art’s narrative.
Lorraine O’Grady’s solo exhibition opens at Mariane Ibrahim Gallery in Chicago. In her T Magazine interview, O’Grady reflects on her unexpected path to art—how poetry, beauty, and life experience led her to discover that she had been a visual artist all along.
The Audacity of Lorraine O’Grady—In this profile of O’Grady, Soraya Nadia McDonald offers careful consideration of the artist whose belated welcome into many institutions has set her a part as a forward-thinking rebel in the art world. Often cited as a major influence among fellow Black women artists, much of the world has finally caught up to O’Grady.
In A-M Journal, Lorraine O’Grady reflects on her life’s work and her “both/and” philosophy, rejecting binary thinking through the symbolic use of the diptych. Paired with Mariane Ibrahim’s insights on her gallery ecosystem, the article illuminates two influential figures reshaping contemporary art through innovation, inclusivity, and critical dialogue.
After the opening of O’Grady’s first exhibit, The Knight, or Lancela Palm-and-Steel, at the Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, artist Ayana V. Jackson wrote about her experience of meeting O’Grady who Jackson has long revered. Jackson notes how O’Grady’s pathmaking opened up worlds for Black women to come: “She stood alone so we can stand together… And on our own.”
Press release for the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation’s 2024 fellows which includes O’Grady in support of her forthcoming performative work project.
In her introduction for “Teaching/Learning with Lorraine O’Grady’s Both/And,” Amanda Gilvin offers a unique vantage point for viewing the renowned artist’s multi-decade career. While many have described O’Grady as becoming an artist later in life, Gilvin highlights the links between Wellesley College and the development of O’Grady’s groundbreaking concept of “both/and” over time, revealing that perhaps it was while at the college, her artistry first began to take form.
Boston Globe, 2024. Murray Whyte reviews O’Grady’s “Both/And” at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College. Whyte notes the multifaceted nature of O’grady with a life that includes a stint at the US Department of Labor, writing rock criticism, and teaching. All of these positions converged into her art making process, beginning with the performance “Rivers, First Draft.”
Forbes, 2024. Chad Scott reports on O’Grady’s “Both/And” exhibit at the Davis Museum of Wellesley College. As an alum of Wellesely, O’Grady’s exhibit and accompanying archival materials offers a unique experience for students to learn about the journey of a former student forging their own path in the art world.
Patch, 2024. Jainie Winter reports on O’Grady’s “Both/And” solo exhibit, showing at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College. In the article Winter provides an overview of O’Grady’s work and the themes she often explores such as “calls for an anti-hierarchical approach to difference.”
Boston Globe, 2024. Ahead of the showing of “Both/And” at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Murray Whyte provides a comprehensive background on O’Grady beginning as one the few Black graduates of Wellesley College in 1955. Whyte offers an overview of some of O’Grady’s most renowned works that are included in the exhibit such as “Mlle. Bourgeoise Noire,” “Rivers, First Draft,” and “Cutting Out The New York Times”
Wellesley Magazine, 2024. Kerry Gaertner Gerbracht offers an insightful look into O’Grady’s prolific career as a writer, teacher, and artist in this article covering the opening of “Both/And” at the Davis Museum. Gerbracht notes the expansion of the exhibit from its original showing which includes pieces directly related to her time at Wellesley College as a student.
The Wellesley News, 2024. The reopening of Davis Museum at Wellesley College began with the opening of O’Grady’s “Both/And” retrospective exhibit. In this review of opening night, Phoebe Rebhorn pays special attention to the inspiration that alum O’Grady can serve for current Wellesley students. An accompanying symposium, gave insight on the lessons of O’Grady’s art which calls for a consistent pushing of new boundaries and encourages limitless thinking.
The Bay State Banner, 2024. Susan Saccocia reviews O’Grady’s “Both/And” at the Davis Museum at O’Grady’s alma mater, Wellesley College. Saccocia describes several of O’Grady’s most prominent works on display in the exhibit and highlights how the show weaves the narrative of O’Grady’s lustrous and expansive career.
WBUR, 2024. Arielle Gray explores the works featured in O’Grady’s “Both/And” exhibit as well as O’Grady’s own writing and words, Arielle Gray. While some may view some of O’Grady’s life as a journey to become an artist, Gray highlights how she always was one. Synthesizing O’Grady’s impact on the art world and her own view of her body of work, Gray finds that it’s not only a critique of or disruption O’Grady seeks, but she crafts a world that shows “all of her multiplicity and nuance.”
The Momentary, 2024. To commemorate the acquisition of “Untitled: Mlle Bourgeoise Noire,” by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Larissa Ramey examines O’Grady’s presentations of Black womanhood and identity within her work which sheds light on the intricate intersection of race and gender in contemporary society.”
The New York Times, 2023. Claude Manet’s “Olympia” served as the central piece in the “Manet/Exhibit” at the Met which brought the painting to New York for the first time. Jasin Farago notes that O’Grady is one of the few critics who has offered attention to the maid, who was actually a French model named Laure.
ARTnews, 2023. In this list of 100 Greatest New York City Artworks, O’Grady’s “Art Is…” is named fifth for its joyous celebration of Black life and art outside the institutional setting of museums and the mainstream art world.
Art History, 2023. Jamie Danis reviews Stephanie Sparling William’s “Speaking Out of Turn: Lorraine O’Grady and the Art of Language” in conjunction with “Howardena Pindell: Reclaiming Abstraction” by Sarah Louise Cowan. Danis contends with the importance of giving critical and arguably overdue attention to Black American women artists without minimizing the wide-range of their careers outside of the mainstream art world.
New York Magazine, 2023. Prior to the Manet/Degas show pairing which brought Claude Manet’s famed “Olympia” to the Met for the first time, Madeline Leung Coleman reflects on the painting and its complexities. Turning to Laure, the model who posed as the maid, Colemain recounts O’Grady’s seminal “Olympia’s Maid: Reclaiming Black Female Subjectivity,” which dismisses the notion that Laure’s primary function is of aesthetic, tonal contrast.
ICA Boston, 2023. O’Grady’s “The Firm Palm” was included in the “Forecast Form,” the first major group exhibition in the U.S. that focused on Caribbean diaspora. O’Grady’s piece was especially pertinent to the exhibit as it highlights her Boston upbringing in the context of her Jamaican heritage.
American Folk Art Museum, 2023. In 2023, the American Folk Art Museum launched a virtual program inspired by O’Grady’s concept of “both/and” to “examine the Museum’s collection beyond binary ideas of [art].”
Artforum, 2023. Artforum wonders if the trend of highly regarded artists like, O’Grady, departing well-known galleries, such as her former representation, Alexander Grey Associates, is indicative of a wider trend within the industry. O’Grady joined Marian Ibrahim Gallery in September of 2023 and is the gallery’s most established artist.
ARTnews, 2023. Alex Greenberger covers the news that O’Grady joined the Chicago-based Marian Ibrahim Gallery, departing from Alexander Gray Associates. In the article O’Grady is quoted as noting her belief in Mariane Ibrahim who she describes as a trailblazer in the art industry.
The Guardian, 2023. Veronica Esposito’s review of group exhibition, Inheritances, at the Whitney curated by Rujeko Hockley. Along with Ephraim Asili’s 2020 film ‘The Inheritance,” Hockley cites O’Gradys “Rivers, First Draft” as one of the major inspirations for the show as he sought to present challenging works of Black avant-garde art.
Protodispatch, 2023. A conversation between Laura Raicovich and the organizers of Loophole of Retreat, Simone Leigh and Rashida Bumbray on the physical, social, and cultural construction of the event. Accompanying pictures to the article feature O’GRady’s talk with Leigh, a highlight of the symposium.
Journal of Architectural Education, 2023. A conversation between V. Mitch Ewn and Tina Campt begins with a statement proposed by O’Grady at the close of Loophole of Retreat: Venice, a symposium of Black women writers, artists, and thinkers. In what Ewn and Campt regard as a call to action, O’Grady asks, “‘We can’t guilt trip forever, that won’t work. So the question is, how imaginative are we going to be?’” The question frames the cruciality of going beyond white audiences and spectators to speak to other Black women.
RP, 2014. Gail Lewis explores themes of “intergenerationality as a form of coalition.” Pointing to O’Grady’s “Olympia’s Maid,” Lewis argues for the use of subjectivity and self-reflection as sites of analysis that are critical to coalition building for liberation.
Hyperallergic, 2023. Lorraine O’Grady, Emily Jacir Among American Academy of Arts’s 2023 Awardees — In 2023, O’Grady was one of five recipients of the Arts and Letters Awards in Art, one of the most distinguished art awards. Taylor Michael notes that O’Grady’s work is recognized for addressing hybridity and Black female subjectivity.
FF2 Media, 2023. Artist Lorraine O’Grady’s Both/And Philosophy Rings True — In her article commemorating the two-year anniversary of O’Grady’s “Both/And” exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, Julia Lasker reflects on the critical philosophy that underpins many of O’Grady’s works: both/and. Since the debut of Mlle Bourgeoise Noire, O’Grady has sought to combat the exclusionary nature of the mainstream art world which, as Lasker writes, “categorize identities…into an ‘either/or’ binary.”
The Brooklyn Rail, 2022. Forecast Form — Gervais Marsh’s review of “Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora 1990s to Today” examines the metaphorical and literal fluidity of Black and Indigenous Caribbean diasporas. O’Grady’s The Fir-Palm and The Strange Taxi are highlighted as reminders of O’Grady’s Jamaican lineage.
Art in America, 2023. How Iconic Gallery Just Above Midtown Swapped Art History’s Lone Geniuses for Vibrant Community — Josie Roland Hodson reviews “Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces,” noting the range of featured artists which included frequent and better-known artists such as O’Grady alongside “those less familiar to the mainstream art press.”
The Strategist, 2023/ 22 Best Black Coffee-Table Books — Tembe Denton-Hurst provides a comprehensive list of coffee-table books from Black artists and writers. The list includes Both/And, the accompanying catalogue to O’Grady’s retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum. O’Grady is also noted as an icon in “The Soul of a Nation Reader,” featured on the list.
First of the Month, 2023. This Met is Mine — In his thoughtful essay, Ben Khadim DeMott details his first encounter with O’Grady’s Miscegenated Family Album at the Booth collection at the University of Chicago which unearthed his own familial memories of trips to Met and viewing the Ancient Egyptian exhibit. Through research DeMott finds that “(Cross Generational) L: Nefertiti, the last image; R: Devonia\’s youngest Daughter, Kimberley,” is a part of the larger performance piece, “Nefertiti/Devonia Evangeline.” He explores the cathartic potential of art as shown in O’Gradys works which serve first as a balm not an analytic correction of history.
post notes on art in a global context, 2023. Disrupting the Institution through Language and Enactment — Veronika Molnar’s essay examines the cultural importance and legacy of Hungarian Roma artist, Omara. Molnar highlights the parallels between Omara’s disruptions and interventions of art openings and O’Grady’s Mlle Bourgeoise Noire, which reflect the institutional struggles of both Black women artists in the United States and Romani women artists in Europe.
Hyperallergic 2023. What Just Above Midtown Meant for Black Artists — Taylor Michael reviews “Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces at the Museum of Modern Art” which included stills from O’Grady’s Mlle Bourgeoise Noire as well as her most recent persona, The Knight.
Lorraine O’Grady Has Always Been A Rebel—In this conversation for The New Yorker, Doreen St. Felix and O’Grady discuss the artist’s nonconformist attitudes which she cultivated in childhood, rebelling from a middle class, Black immigrant family. This spirit of rebellion foregrounded O’Grady’s interest in the avant-garde and her penchant for conceptualism.
For Aware’s index of worm artists, Stephanie Sparling Williams writes on O’Grady’s unique path to becoming an artist from US intelligence analyst, teacher, translator, and critic to avant-garde performances and photo installations.
The Kitchen, 2022. In 2022 Lorraine O’Grady was The Kitchen’s gala honoree. Alex Jacquet’s article surveys O’Grady’s work and situates it in dialogue with multi-disciplinary artist, Simone Leigh, who has cited O’Grady as a critical influence. Both O’Grady and Leigh, confront a “historic script” to re-contextualize subjectivity of Black women.
Alexis Jacquet and Angelique Rosales Salgado, “Lorraine O’Grady and Simone Leigh”— A view of the work of Lorraine O’Grady, The Kitchen’s 2022 gala honoree, in conversation with multi-disciplinary artist, Simone Leigh who has cited O’Grady as a critical influence. Both O’Grady and Leigh, confront a “historic script” to re-contextualize subjectivity of Black women.
Nancy Princenthal reviews Simone Leigh’s 2022 exhibit Sovereignty which includes her first debuted video, “Conspiracy” that features O’Grady.
O’Grady’s “Body is the Ground Experience” was featured in Artnews’ list of must-see shows for the inaugural New York Art Week. The exhibit was the first time it had shown in 30 years and was based on O’Grady’s interest in Surrealism.
Siddhartha Mitter interviews Simone Leigh on Sovereignty, her installation for the U.S. Pavillion at the Venice Biennale. Leigh’s mentor, O’Grady, expresses enthusiasm for the symposium Loophole of Retreat that will accompany the show in October 2022.
Lorraine O’Grady’s exhibition of diptych photographs, “Body Is the Ground of My Experience,” is included in a list of standout shows in the first-ever New York Art Week. Thirty years after the photographs were first made, the works are re-contextualized following the artist’s 2021 retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum, “Both/And.”
In a review for the New York Times, Holland Cotter makes note of the similarities and differences between two concurrent exhibitions in New York City that highlight artists of Caribbean descent. “Juan Francisco Elso: Por América,” a solo exhibition at El Museo del Barrio is discussed alongside the group show “Sin Autorización: Contemporary Cuban Art.” Exhibited at Columbia University’s Wallach Art Gallery, “Sin Autorización” features Elso and O’Grady amongst other Afro-/Cuban artists.
Tom Patterson forms a based chronology of O'Grady's diverse range of careers. He notes her positions as an intelligence analyst for the federal government and a freelance writer for Rolling Stone, all of which she held before she was 40 years old. He studies her persona “Mlle Bourgeoise Noire” in her pivot to start an art practice in the latter half of her life.
Rizvana Bradley responds to Seph Rodney’s essay published in Hyperallergic, “Discovering How Black Women Might Forge a Path to Freedom.” In recounting the “Loophole of Retreat” conference – organized by Simone Leigh at the Venice Biennale in 2022 – Bradley offers a sound critique of Rodney’s writing on the conference, which reconsiders in/accessibility in artistic discourse.
Ama Codjoe reads from her recently published collection of poems, Bluest Nude, which considers her cultural visibility. She cites artists Lorraine O’Grady, Simone Leigh, and Evie Shockley in their uses of language as a form that is critical of itself, particularly in the way it is employed.
Loring Knoblauch considers Body Is The Ground of My Experience (1991/2019) as a “reprise” of O’Grady’s retrospective Both/And, exhibited the year prior. She suggests that the show is vital to understanding O’Grady’s late photographic prints.
Folasade Ologundudu interviews Linda Goode-Bryant on her gallery project, Just Above Midtown. The gallery space hosted exhibitions for emerging artists of color from 1974 to 1986. The two discuss MoMA’s acquisition of the JAM archive. Goode-Bryant expresses that while she feels validated for the work that she and her collaborators did, she is also considering the danger of ‘cultural co-option’ that may arise with archiving her project at a predominately white arts institution.
Holland Cotter reviews Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces, which showcased the ground-breaking Black-owned gallery, JAM, that opened in 1974. In his review, Cotter recounts the gallery’s history and monumental works, including O’Grady’s seminal persona, Mlle Bourgeoise Noire which she debuted at JAM.
Seph Rodney recounts his experience at Simone Leigh’s symposium held in conjunction with the artist’s presentation of Leigh’s work at the US Pavilion for the Venice Biennale. The symposium “Loophole of Retreat” brought together artists and theorists alike to consider political liberation and sovereignty for Black women. He writes about Lorraine O’Grady’s conversation with Leigh, one that concerned the Decolonize Museums protests that happened outside of her retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum in 2021. She began to question just what the privilege of a solo institutional show provided her, and how she could make new allyships with those afforded less power than her, notably trans activists.
Aruna D’Souza offers historicizes the foundational years at Just Above Midtown, the gallery project of Linda Goode-Bryant, which platformed artists including David Hammons, Lorna Simpson, and Maren Hassinger early in their careers. D’Souza addresses the show’s goals to highlight the gallery’s history of the 1970s and 1980s, while also enlivening its archive as it remains active into the 2020s. For Goode-Bryant, the question of integrity arises: “Can JAM be JAM at MoMA?”
Ela Bittencourt delivers polished prose after visiting Body Is The Ground of My Experience on view at Alexander Gray Associates in 2022. Notably, she praises O’Grady’s hybrid mode of making critique into a pleasurable venture.
Curator and critic Jacopo Crivelli Visconti names Miscegenated Family Album, on view at Frieze New York in 2022, as “nothing less than one of the masterpieces of the 20th Century.”
Sayaka Matsuoka reviews Both/And, noting that the retrospective not only presents O’Grady’s illustrious career, but shows her penchant for self-reflection and forward movement of her work.
O’Grady receives a mention amongst artists Allan Sekula, Frederico Morais, Park Chan-Kyong, and Marcel Broodthaers. All artists, Heddaya contends, maintain a “writerly” approach that he likens to the art historical impulse to compare and contrast two forms alongside each other in a diptych format.
UC Press listing for Stephanie Sparling Williams’ “Speaking Out of Turn,” which charts O’Grady’s use of language and direct address to carve out space in an art world that had yet to understand her voice. The book argues for O’Grady’s work to be situated within the history of American conceptualism.
The launch of The Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art’s “Lorraine O’Grady Film Club,” which began with Julie Dash’s short film Illusions.
Both Sides Now: In Conversation With Lorraine O’Grady—In an interview with Kate Guadagnino, O’grady discusses a typical day in her life as a working artist and her current interests.
Lorraine O’Grady: Both/And @Brooklyn Museum—Loring Knoblauch provides a comprehensive review of O’Grady’s Both/And retrospective offering a detailed listing of the artworks displayed, and the mapping of the show. Looking closely at each component presented at the Brooklyn Museum, Knoblauch finds that what emerges is the importance of conceptualism and idea-driven practices to O’Grady’s work.
Risk Everything—Ahead of the “Both/And” retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum, Catherinne Damman writes an insightful essay on the varied art and career of O’Grady. Of her many practices, Damman sees “risk as [O’Grady’s] primary medium,” foregoing easy stratifications in favor of deep inquiry and interrogation of the structures that bind.
Artbook’s listing for “Lorraine O’Grady: Both/And”, the accompanying book to O’Grady’s retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum in 2021. The book surveys O’Grady’s work spanning over four decades of her major works and showcases, “Announcement”, her new persona and performance piece.
The New Yorker’s “This Week” section announces O’Grady’s solo retrospective, “Both/And,” set to open the Brooklyn Museum the following week.
In a review of the retrospective Both/And, Siddhartha Mitter sings the praises of O’Grady’s deft political critique. Having developed a rapport with the artist through his repeated reviews of her work, he quotes the artist in conversation: “I am making incisions on the skin of culture” […] “it is work I’ll be doing for the rest of my life.”
In a review of Lorraine O’Grady’s solo exhibition “Both/And,” Hyperallergic’s Alexandra M. Thomas discusses the politics asserted by the artist within the museum. Thomas writes, ““Both/And” thinking posits a refusal of either/or framework that is endemic to the West. In disavowing [Western] binaristic thinking, we can instead dwell on the nuance of the world’s disarray and uncertainty.”
G.M. Burns reviews Stephanie Sparling Williams’ new book, Speaking Out of Turn: Lorraine O’Grady and the Art of Language, which he marks as crucial in contextualizing O’Grady’s artistry. The article also includes an interview with Dr. Williams that explores her interest in engaging the artist’s work.
Anni Irish offers an overview of O’Grady’s art practice in consideration of her retrospective, Both/And, focusing on key conceptual stakes, such as the artist’s interest in language as form.
Jillian Steinhauer reviews O'Grady's retrospective exhibition “Both/And” at the Brooklyn Museum. The article highlights O'Grady's pioneering work in performance art and her exploration of race, gender, and identity in her practice. Steinhauer describes O'Grady's personal history, including her West Indian heritage, her education, and her career as a writer before she turned to art, another aspect of her life that significantly informs her art practice.
Lorraine O’Grady, Still Cutting Into the Culture—Forty years after O’Grady debuted Mlle Bourgeoise Noire, declaring that Black art to take more risks, O’Grady receives her first retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum which features the launch of a new persona. In this profile, Siddhartha Mitter showcases how O’Grady has continuously pursued new ventures, pushing culture forward in her quests of discovery.
Upon the opening of O’Grady’s retrospective Both/And, Artforum devotes much of its March 2021 issue to her prolific art practice. Catherine Damman provides a decades-long overview of her career, Mira Dayal focuses on Miscegenated Family Album, and David Fiasco interviews the artist on new works in progress.
Christina Sharpe writes a crucial essay upon the publishing of Lorraine O’Grady’s collected writings and interviews, entitled Writing in Space, suggesting that the artist’s “fierce intelligence, wit and humor, curiosity, anger” is the grist for social revolution.
After a visit to O’Grady’s retrospective Both/And, Cassidy George commends the artist’s life’s work: to demand art institutions to prioritize inclusion.
Holland Cotter, a chronic reviewer of O’Grady’s work, calls attention to the exhibition design of her retrospective, Both/And. She remarks on how the artist’s pervasive installation, which weaves throughout the museum, encourages viewers to reconsider the institution’s permanent collection through a critical lens.
In light of O’Grady’s retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum, Murray Whyte argues for the artist’s embrace of cultural hybridity through an in-depth analysis of her art practice. Specifically, she considers how O’Grady’s insistence to be “both/and” – to contain multiple backgrounds at the same time, refusing a singular identity – could usher in the next generation of interdisciplinary, multicultural artists.
O’Grady’s retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum, Both/And, receives a sincere note of respect on Jack Bankowsky’s top ten exhibitions seen in 2021.
In a one-paragraph review of Both/And, Lynne Cooke includes O’Grady’s retrospective in her highlights of 2021, noting the artist’s “fiercely intelligent, subversive” defiance of race-based exclusion in the New York art world and Second-wave feminist movement.
O’Grady’s retrospective Both/And (and her publication Writing in Space) receive an honorable mention in Holland Cotter and Roberta Smith’s roundup of 2021’s most notable art exhibitions.
For Those Who Will Know—In her introduction for O’Grady’s “Writing in Space,” the first collection of the artist’s writing, Aruna D’Souza illuminates the throughline of forward-thinking found in O’Grady’s groundbreaking art. Resisting the simple and rigid classifications that box in many women and Black artists, O’Grady has continuously complicated and challenged cultural notions of binarism. This provocation has taken form in all modes of her practices—from her seminal performance of alter ego Mlle Bourgeoise Noir to the recurrent diptychs bridging unexpected figures like Michael Jackson and Charles Baudelaire. D’Souza delineates how these works are foregrounded by O’Grady’s training as a writer.
Alexandra M. Thomas affirms the range of O’Grady’s literature upon the release of her collected essays and interviews entitled Writing in Space, making clear the wisdom in her scholarship, much of which was written before she was (recognized as) a practicing artist.
Zachary Small reports on President Biden’s homage to “Art Is…” in his 2020 presidential campaign advertisement. The article places O’Grady amongst other artists similarly addressing the political climate of 2020. While Alexander Gray warns that “a piece like this is so easy for advertisers to appropriate,” the article makes clear that O’Grady gave her blessing on the campaign’s concept. “Biden is saying the same thing to the country that I was saying to the art world.”
After President Biden’s 2020 election win, reporter Eric Kohn interviews the campaign’s media production team. Biden’s video director Andrew Gauthier speaks to his interest in artists Lorraine O’Grady, Richard Linklater, and Barry Jenkins, all of whom influenced the iconic media campaign.
For Artforum, Colby Chamberlain articulates the nuanced, critical value of O’Grady’s “haiku diptychs.” In the review, he traces O’Grady’s deconstruction of print language to the post-Modernist lineage of Benjamin, Derrida, and Mallarmé, which she taught at the School of the Visual Arts around the same time the prints were in production.
Heather Kapplow conducts a formal analysis of O’Grady’s performance persona, Mlle Bourgeoise Noire, in an attempt to bridge her pioneering artwork of the 1980s with the activism of Black public figures in the 2010s.