Page 40 - ART GIANTS issue of World of Art (WOA) Contemporary Art Magazine

care among Black women, documenting relationships
WORLD-CLASS ART LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER: connection to Braddock.
between Frazier, her mother, her grandmother, and their

MONUMENTS OF SOLIDARITY
The installation pairs photographs with silent videos and
a poem listing environmental toxins in the town’s air.
Flint Is Family in Three Acts (2016–20) follows Shea S.
Cobb and her family amid Flint, Michigan’s water crisis,
The Museum of Modern Art presents LaToya Ruby
portraying their migration in search of clean water and
Frazier: Monuments of Solidarity, the first museum
the grassroots efforts to support the community.
survey dedicated to the artist-activist. The exhibition
showcases Frazier’s work spanning over two decades,
including rarely seen pieces. Known for her use of
photography, text, moving images, and performance,
she highlights narratives of labor, gender, and race in
postindustrial America. The exhibition is organized by
Roxana Marcoci, The David Dechman Senior Curator and
Acting Chief Curator, with Caitlin Ryan and Antoinette
Roberts.
Born in Braddock, Pennsylvania, Frazier builds on the
traditions of social documentary photography and
conceptual art while drawing inspiration from writers
like Upton Sinclair and James Baldwin. Her work
confronts issues such as industrial decline, racial and
environmental injustice, gender disparities, healthcare
LaToya Ruby Frazier, Holding flag laying at the edge of Pier 54 and the Hudson
inequities, and the erosion of fundamental rights. She River. On flag: US Army transport Buford, the “Soviet ark,” used to deport
describes her practice as resisting historical erasure political radicals and other “undesirable” noncitizens from the United States
“one photograph, one essay, one monument at a time.” to Russia in December 1919, broadside view, 1907 from Pier 54: A Human
Right to Passage, 2014 © 2024 LaToya Ruby Frazier, courtesy of the artist and
For this exhibition, Frazier reimagines her diverse Gladstone gallery
projects as “monuments for workers’ thoughts.” The
Installation view of LaToya Ruby Frazier: Monuments of Solidarity, on view at
Notion of Family (2001–14) explores the politics of
The Museum of Modern Art, New York from May 12 through September 7,
2024. Photo: Jonathan Dorado.

40 WORLD of ART