30 AMERICANS Nina Chanel Abney, Class of 2007, 2007, acrylic on canvas, diptych, overall 114 x 183 in. (289.6 x 4 64.8 cm), Rubell Museum, Miami, acquired in 2008
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Bird On Money, 1981, acrylic and oil on canvas, 66 x 90 in. (167.6 x 228.6 cm), Rubell Museum, Miami, acquired in 1981
30 Americans
T Hank Willis Thomas, Basketball and Chain, 2003, digital chromogenic print, ed. 2/3, 99 x 55 in. (251.5 x 139.7 cm), Rubell Museum, Miami, acquired in 2007
The exhibition highlights complex explorations into identity
HE INFLUENTIAL EXHIBI-
TION 30 Americans showcases
view and write about 30 Americans today
work by some of the most
may be vastly different from how we
important artists of the last
would have written about it ten years ago.
three decades. It focuses on issues of
And yet, according to Curator Gwendolyn
racial, sexual, and historical identity in
Dubois Shaw's 2019 article in Art News:
contemporary culture while exploring the
“Because these artists occupy complex
powerful influence of artistic legacy and
subject positions, to say that they share
community. Highlights include works
a common identity as African Americans
by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Nick Cave,
belies the richness of their varied and
Robert Colescott, Lorna Simpson,
often intersectional experiences as men,
Wangenchi Mutu, Kehinde Wiley, and
women, straight, gay, queer, wealthy,
Mickalene Thomas.
working class, and so forth. Just as there
30 Americans was conceived during
is no single type of work in this exhibition,
the Barack Obama presidency in 2008
which includes sculpture, painting, video,
when the media touted the beginning of
and installation, neither is there one kind
a post-racial period in American history.
of ‘Black’ artist in the group.”
In the ten years since, the political land2
FALL 2020
Art. History. People.
scape has shifted considerably. How we
The Miami-based collectors, the Rubell
