Unmasking Masculinity for the 21st Century

About the exhibition: Juxtaposing works from the KIA's collection and those borrowed from private and public lenders around the United States, Unmasking Masculinity for the 21st Century investigates how artists use tradition, contemporary practice, and performance to explore the construction of masculinity. Co-curated by Rehema Barber, Chief Curator of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (KIA), and highly acclaimed independent curator Larry Ossei-Mensah, the exhibition is also a forum to...
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About the exhibition: Juxtaposing works from the KIA's collection and those borrowed from private and public lenders around the United States, Unmasking Masculinity for the 21st Century investigates how artists use tradition, contemporary practice, and performance to explore the construction of masculinity. Co-curated by Rehema Barber, Chief Curator of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (KIA), and highly acclaimed independent curator Larry Ossei-Mensah, the exhibition is also a forum to engage the community in conversations led by artists, scholars, and activists. This exhibition presents diverse communities and individuals, while also revealing how artists such as Kehinde Wiley, Kahlil Joseph, and Jaishri Abichandani, among others. have responded to, reframed, or reclaimed the concept of masculinity throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Unmasking Masculinity for the 21st Century Co-curated by Rehema Barber, KIA Chief Curator and Larry Ossei-Mensah, Independent Curator Exhibition Run: September 24, 2022 - December 29, 2022 - Select works on exhibition through March 5, 2023 About the catalogue: Using the exhibition's five key themes - Coming of Age, Performing Bodies & Identities, Representation & Belonging, Sports & Masculinity, and Power, Privilege & Perspectives - to explore a multitude of viewpoints surrounding masculinity during the last five decades, the accompanying catalogue for Unmasking Masculinity for the 21st Century questions established ideas of manhood and investigates how these ideas continue to influence understandings of masculine identities today. Featuring essays by from its curators, as well as Jeff Chang, Omar Lopez-Chahoud, Paul Robert Solomon, Anuradha Vikram, and Maurice Wallace, and a forward by KIA Executive Director Belinda Tate, this catalogue pairs with an extensive slate of programming to illuminate the complexities of manhood in our society, while encouraging readers to consider new ways of thinking about masculinity. As a result, new pathways of being, seeing, and talking about identity for future generations become evident.