“I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background,” Zora Neale Hurston observed. When it comes to portraiture of the past, history itself crystallizes into a sharp white background. Titled after a line of verse by Maya Angelou, which calls out history’s uneven narration, this exhibition confronts the past by coloring it in. Here, five experimental portraits—from five different artists—honor women of color. Unseen lives, ever resilient, rise here. —C.J.F.