Unit Gallery’s Venice Show ‘In Praise Of Black Errantry’ Celebrates The Radical Black Imagination

Curated by Indie A. Choudhury, Unit Gallery's inaugural presentation at the Venice Biennale, the group exhibition, In praise of the black error, explores freedom and resistance within the black diaspora.

In Praise of the Black Wanderer it is inspired by the Martinique-born French writer and philosopher Édouard Glissant (1928–2011), who proposed wandering as a form of freedom and resistance.

“The Afrodiasporic artists featured in this exhibition embrace wandering as a radical strategy that challenges boundaries and champions spontaneity and experimentation beyond cultural fixation or political containment,” explains Choudhury. , as Choudhury notes, “pushed the constraints of formal rules of style, color, medium, or genre toward technical innovation, artistic evolution, and liberation.”

Featuring nineteen modern and contemporary Afrodiasporic artists, notable works by artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Romare Bearden, Phoebe Boswell and Adelaide Damoah are on view, along with newly commissioned works by Stacey Gillian Abe, Winston Branch, Jonathan Lyndon Chase and Rachel. Jones, Anya Paintsil and others. The exhibition also includes a site-specific sound installation by Trevor Mathison (Dubmorphology and Black Audio Film Collective).

“My practice is quite rooted in whimsy and wanderlust, while also being born entirely out of tradition, both African and European,” says featured artist Anya Paintsil, whose work “depicts the blacks of 'unrealistic way'. Paintsil claims that although she is formally trained, the art she was exposed to at an early age – “West African carvings, statues, masks” – formed her visual language. “My practice is completely rooted outside of European art, it's rooted outside of the art of upper-class people.”

As part of the 2024 Biennale's theme, 'Foreigners Everywhere', which explores the complexities around ethnicities, genders and nationalities, In Praise of the Black Wanderer presents questions such as, how have artists used wandering as a form of black dissent? How have diasporic experiences influenced artistic innovations and freedoms? And how are constructs such as disobedience and capriciousness revealed in black diaspora art?

For commissioned artist Adelaide Damoah, “the artwork embodies the spirit of wandering resistance by challenging dominant narratives, claiming agency and embracing the fluidity of cultural identity in the face of historical colonial oppression… It invites viewers to critically engage with the complexities of history and imagine alternative narratives of empowerment and liberation.”

In Praise of the Black Wanderer on view now through June 29, 2024 at Palazzo Pisani S. Marina.

For more information, visit London Unit.