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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Arthur Jafa

Sept 16, 2021 – Dec 31, 2022
12100 Glen Rd, Potomac, MD 20854, United States

“I want to make Black cinema with the power, beauty, and alienation of Black music,” the polymath artist and cinematographer Arthur Jafa has said. “That’s my big goal.” Jafa’s installations and films tend to focus on changing representations of Blackness—especially in the realms of culture and creativity. Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Jafa found himself in the limelight in 2016, after exhibiting a video work titled Love is the Message, the Message is Death. In 2019, he won the top prize at that year’s Venice Biennale. He is recognized as one of the world’s most radical artists. This exhibition sees Jafa’s film, sculpture, and photography brought together in a single room. He addresses pain, beauty, and imaginative power. —E.C.

Arthur Jafa at the Glenstone Museum, 2021. Photo courtesy of the Glenstone Museum.