Black Gaze

In A Black Gaze, Campt examines contemporary Black artists who shift interaction with visuals, like Lawson's portraits, Jafa's videos, Joseph's films, Bey's photos and Okpokwasili, Leigh and Thompson's embodied & multimedia art. Viewers must do more than look; the work solicits visceral responses to the visualization of Black precarity. This new way of seeing shifts us from passive optics to active struggle alongside Black life's suffering & joy.

These artists humanize Blackness, creating images that flow & revalue the archive of Black life. Campt writes with passion, describing the creativity, ingenuity, cunning & courage of the Black gaze.