Books by Elvira Dyangani Ose

Carrie Mae Weems "a Great Turn in the Possible"

by Fred Moten, Carrie Mae Weems, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Iris Dressler

The most comprehensive survey of Weems' genre-defying oeuvre yet published

One of the most influential American artists working today, Carrie Mae Weems has investigated narratives around family, race, gender, sexism, class and the consequences of power for more than 40 years. Her complex oeuvre--always ahead of its time, and profoundly formative for younger generations of artists--has employed photography (for which she is best known), fabric, text, audio, digital images, installation and video. Writing in the New York Times, Holland Cotter succinctly described Weems as "a superb image maker and a moral force, focused and irrepressible."

This volume, spanning four decades of work, is the most thorough survey yet published. It includes Weems' earliest series, such as Family Pictures and Stories, for which she photographed her relatives and close friends; the legendary Kitchen Table Series, in which she posed in a domestic setting; and other critically acclaimed works and series such as Ain't Jokin', Colored People, From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried, Not Manet's Type, The Jefferson Suite, Monuments, Roaming, Museums, Constructing History (A Class Ponders the Future), Slow Fade to Black and the Obama Project, among many others. Contextualizing these pieces are essays by LaCharles Ward and Fred Moten and a chronology by Raul Muñoz. The book also includes a visual essay by Weems that presents a personal selection of her own works from the artist's perspective. The accompanying exhibition is organized by Fundación MAPFRE in collaboration with Fundación Foto Colectania, Barcelona and Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, where the exhibition Carrie Mae Weems. The Evidence Of Things Not Seen took place from April 2 through July 10, 2022.

Carrie Mae Weems (born 1953) has received numerous awards, grants and fellowships, and is represented in public and private collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Weems lives in Brooklyn and Syracuse, New York.

Project a Black Planet The Art and Culture of Panafrica

by Matthew S. Witkovsky, Adom Getachew, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Antawan I. Byrd

An expansive look at more than a century of Pan-Africanist art and the ways it embodies the movement's principles and global ambitions



Since the term Pan-Africanism was coined around 1900, the movement's promise has been to foster liberation and solidarity for Black peoples worldwide. Focusing on its cultural expression, this book presents a rich selection of the visual, sonic, and other creative forms that have emerged throughout Pan-Africanism's evolution. Among the nearly two hundred artists represented from across the continent and the African diaspora are Beauford Delaney, Ibrahim El-Salahi, Hoyt William Fuller, Wifredo Lam, Simone Leigh, Ernest Mancoba, Zanele Muholi, Kawira Mwirichia, Cauleen Smith, Alma Thomas, and George Albert Yon.



Reflecting Pan-Africanism's ideals of diversity and dialogue as well as its aspirations to egalitarianism, essays from more than a dozen scholars, artists, and practitioners speak to a range of themes and places, while discussing works in all media made or circulated outside the infrastructure of fine art, including LP albums, illustrated magazines, and manifestos.



Distributed for The Art Institute of Chicago



Exhibition Schedule:



The Art Institute of Chicago

(December 15, 2024-March 30, 2025)



MACBA Museu d'Art Contemporani, Barcelona

(November 6, 2025-April 6, 2026)



Barbican Centre, London

(June 10-September 6, 2026)



KANAL-Centre Pompidou, Brussels

(Fall 2026-Winter 2027)