While “new media art” has become more and more prevalent today, one area remains relatively unexplored: the contributions of Black artists to the nascent movement. A new exhibition seeks to remedy this by unearthing archival examples of how Black artists, authors, activists, and engineers helped usher in the new wave of internet art. On view are W. E. B. DuBois’s hand-drawn charts depicting Black contributions to American culture, as well as electronically-programmed light works by the sculptor Tom Lloyd (1929–1996). Also highlighted are the contributions of individuals such as Samuel R. Delaney, an award-winning science fiction writer, and Marion Stokes, the pioneering television archivist. —Paulina Prosnitz
The Arts Intel Report
Code Switch: Distributing Blackness, Reprogramming Internet Art
Sculptor Tom Lloyd and his apprentices in the artist’s studio in Jamaica, Queens, c. 1968.
When
Until Dec 19
Where
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037, United States
Etc
Photo: Reginald McGhee, courtesy of the Studio Museum in Harlem Archives