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.
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’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.
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 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.
In a review of Cutting Out CONYT, Sarah Cascone describes O’Grady’s statements on political narrative as profoundly revealing and “previously unthinkable” in her earlier series Cutting Out the New York Times.
Written in the Fall 2018 Art Guide, Hyperallergic suggests that O’Grady, in her interrogation of print journalism issued in her series Cutting Out CONYT, calls for a collapse of language’s ability to signify meaning for a wide-ranging public.