Isaac Julien: True North & Fantôme Afrique
Isaac Julien: True North & Fantôme Afrique
This October, Victoria Miro Gallery will present the UK premiere of True North and Fantôme Afrique, two audiovisual installations by celebrated artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien, alongside associated photographic series. Developing Julien's preoccupation with notions and expressions of diaspora, the creolising of space and crossings, the works explore the impact of location - both cultural and physical - to resounding effect through a juxtaposition of opposing global regions. True North, shot in the spectacular landscapes of Iceland and Northern Sweden, is conceived around the expedition and writings of Matthew Henson. One of the key members of Robert E. Peary's 1909 Arctic expedition, Henson was controversially and arguably the first person to reach the North Pole, who was also African-American. True North's counterpart, Fantôme Afrique, weaves cinematic and architectural references through the rich imagery of urban Ouagadougou, the centre for cinema in Africa, and the arid spaces of rural Burkina Faso, and is punctuated by archival footage from early colonial expeditions and landmark moments in African history. Renowned choreographer and dancer Stephen Galloway (Ballet Frankfurt) and actor Vanessa Myrie (Baltimore) figure as 'trickster/phantom' and 'witness' in this carefully composed meditation on the denationalised, de-territorialised spaces born of the encounters between local and global cultures, where the ghosts of history linger amid the realities of the day.
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Exhibition
Posted
September 27 2024
On view at MCA Australia – Isaac Julien: Once Again… (Statues Never Die)
On view 27 September 2024–16 February 2025, Isaac Julien’s mesmerising and immersive five-screen black-and-white installation film explores the relationship and correspondence between art collector Albert C. Barnes (1872–1951) and prominent philosopher, educator and cultural leader Alain Locke (1885–1954). Museum of Contemporary Art Australia -
Art fair
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September 6 2024
Victoria Miro at The Armory Show with a solo presentation of Isaac Julien’s Once Again… (Statues Never Die)
A two-screen installation of Julien's highly acclaimed film is accompanied by associated photographic works including Diasporic Dream Space Diptych, on view in the US for the first time. -
Review
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July 12 2024
Alex Greenberger reviews Isaac Julien installations at MoMA and the Whitney Museum, on view in New York
'In all three, he takes up storied figures of Black history, resisting history lessons and clichés in the process.' Alex Greenberger, Art in America -
Exhibition
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March 26 2024
Isaac Julien: Ten Thousand Waves at Espace Louis Vuitton Osaka
On view 27 March–22 September 2024, Isaac Julien's monumental 2010 video installation stages a polyphony of actors, places and periods in a tribute to Chinese culture. Osaka, Japan -
Talk
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March 19 2024
Annual Stuart Hall Public Conversation with Isaac Julien
Taking place 2–5pm on 23 March 2024, Julien’s keynote presentation will focus on the current state of the imaginary, exploring the connection between image-making and political allegory. Conway Hall, London -
Exhibition
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March 11 2024
Whitney Biennial 2024, featuring Isaac Julien
Reviewing the exhibition in the New York Times, Martha Schwendener writes, ‘Isaac Julien’s masterful video and sculpture installation is a highlight of the show. It remakes the dialogue between the Harlem Renaissance philosopher Alain Locke and the collector-philanthropist Albert C. Barnes, and there is an absorbing discussion of how Europeans and Americans viewed African sculpture — and the responses of Black versus white artists and collectors to such objects. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York -
Exhibition
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February 8 2024
Isaac Julien features in A Model at MUDAM
This major group exhibition (9 February–8 September 2024) proposes a reflection on the role of the museum at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It reaffirms the need to think of the institution as a living place, sensitive and receptive to contemporary debates. MUDAM, Luxembourg -
News story
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January 31 2024
Whitechapel Gallery Art Icon 2024: Isaac Julien
On Monday 18 March 2024, Whitechapel Gallery hosted its annual Art Icon Gala in honour of Isaac Julien. Whitechapel Gallery, London -
Exhibition
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January 25 2024
Isaac Julien features in Entangled Pasts, 1768–now at the Royal Academy of Arts
The exhibition (3 February–28 April 2024) brings together over 100 major contemporary and historic works as part of a conversation about art and its role in shaping narratives of empire, enslavement, resistance, abolition and colonialism – and how it may help set a course for the future. Royal Academy of Arts, London -
Exhibition
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January 25 2024
As announced in The New York Times, Isaac Julien is featured in the 2024 Whitney Biennial
Opening on 20 March 2024 (member previews from 14 March) and titled Even Better Than the Real Thing, the Biennial includes 71 artists and collectives. -
Exhibition
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January 18 2024
Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour – Frederick Douglass at Tang Museum
In this film installation (on view 3 February–19 May 2024) Julien conjures Douglass’s role in the abolitionist movement, powerfully emphasizing its relevance to contemporary social justice struggles. Saratoga Springs, NY -
Exhibition
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December 8 2023
On view at The Smithsonian – Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour – Frederick Douglass
Now on view (8 December 2023–6 December 2026), this is the first joint acquisition between the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC. Washington, DC -
Exhibition
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August 24 2023
On view at the Yale Architecture Gallery – Isaac Julien: Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement
On view 24 August–10 December 2023, the nine-screen installation envisioned for the Yale Architecture Gallery and presented by the Yale Center for British Art ignites a conversation between Bo Bardi’s landmark buildings in Brazil and Paul Rudolph’s Brutalist design for the Yale School of Architecture (1963). New Haven, Connecticut -
Exhibition
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May 19 2023
On view at Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art – I Am Seen… Therefore, I Am: Isaac Julien and Frederick Douglass
Isaac Julien’s immersive, multi-screen film installation Lessons of the Hour anchors this exploration of Frederick Douglass’ reflections on image-making, race, and citizenship. On view 18 May–24 September 2023. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art , Hartford, Connecticut -
Exhibition
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April 26 2023
Isaac Julien: What Freedom Is To Me at Tate Britain
This ambitious solo exhibition (26 April–20 August 2023) reveals the scope of Julien’s pioneering work in film and installation from the early 1980s through to the present day. Tate Britain -
Interview
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March 22 2023
Isaac Julien features on the cover of April’s Frieze
Ahead of his major exhibition at Tate Britain, the artist considers how his films will exist in the future, in conversation with Deborah Willis. Frieze -
Exhibition
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March 8 2023
Isaac Julien: Playtime – Works from the Wemhöner Collection, now open at the PalaisPopulaire
On view in Germany for the first time (8 March–10 July 2023), Playtime makes the real existence of capital tangible, also raising awareness of the individual, social, cultural, and ecological effects of capitalism. The PalaisPopulaire, Berlin -
Exhibition
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January 2 2023
Isaac Julien features in Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898–1971
On view until 16 July 2023, Isaac Julien's Baltimore is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898–1971. This three-channel installation pays homage to the late writer, director, producer, and actor Melvin Van Peebles. Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Los Angeles -
News story
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December 15 2022
Isaac Julien features in Art Review’s Power 100
Julien’s ambitious film-installations and videos, which blend archive images with reenactments to offer constellationlike portraits of historic Black figures, have become cult references among artists seeking to engage with Black histories and the legacies of cultural domination, migration and the diasporic experience. Art Review -
Exhibition
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December 15 2022
Isaac Julien: Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement at Philadelphia Museum of Art
On view from 28 January–29 May 2023, Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement, 2019, explores the life, work, and legacy of the Italian-Brazilian modernist architect Lina Bo Bardi (1914–1992). Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania -
Exhibition
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December 10 2022
Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour – Frederick Douglass at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
On view 10 December 2022–9 July 2023, Lessons of the Hour – Frederick Douglass is an immersive and poetic meditation on the great 19th-century abolitionist. The poignant 10-screen film installation collapses time and space to bridge persistent historical and contemporary challenges of the day. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond -
Exhibition
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September 17 2022
Isaac Julien: Kaiserring der Stadt Goslar 2022 at Mönchehaus-Museum für moderne Kunst
The exhibition (8 October 2022–29 January 2023) features two important cinematic works: Looking for Langston, 1989, and Lessons of the Hour, 2019. Mönchehaus-Museum für moderne Kunst, Germany -
Feature
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July 29 2022
Vogue features Isaac Julien’s Once Again... (Statues Never Die) at the Barnes Foundation
At the Barnes Foundation, Isaac Julien Stages a Soaring Ode to Black Creativity Robert Sullivan, Vogue -
Exhibition
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June 14 2022
Isaac Julien: Once Again... (Statues Never Die) at the Barnes Foundation
In celebration of the Barnes centennial, the museum has commissioned Once Again . . . (Statues Never Die), an immersive five-screen installation by artist and filmmaker Sir Isaac Julien, on view from 19 June 2022. The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia -
Exhibition
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May 28 2022
Isaac Julien: Looking for Langston at Inhotim, Brazil
Julien’s seminal 1989 work is on view (from 28 May 2022) at Inhotim in Brumadinho, Brazil. Blending poetry and images, Julien draws on a lyrical exploration of the private world of Langston Hughes and the fellow Black artists and writers who shaped the Harlem Renaissance. Brumadinho, Brazil -
Exhibition
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March 4 2022
Works by Isaac Julien go on view at Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide
On view 4 March–27 May 2022, the Australian premiere of A Marvellous Entanglement, 2019, which pays tribute to the signficant Brazilian modernist architect Lina Bo Bardi, and Ten Thousand Waves, 2010, a poetically evocative weaving together of stories drawn from China's ancient past and the present. Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide -
Exhibition
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November 7 2021
Works by Isaac Julien feature in the LACMA exhibition Black American Portraits
Spanning over two centuries from c.1800 to the present day, this selection (on view 7 November 2021–17 April 2022) of approximately 150 works draws primarily from LACMA's permanent collection and highlights emancipation and early studio photography. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California -
Exhibition
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October 30 2021
Isaac Julien: Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement opens at The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art
The first US museum presentation of Lina Bo Bardi - A Marvellous Entanglement, Isaac Julien’s nine-screen film installation, which is tribute to the visionary Italian-Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi. On view 30 October 2021–27 February 2022. The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Charlotte, North Carolina -
Exhibition
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July 29 2021
The UK and European premiere of Isaac Julien’s Lessons of the Hour
This ten-screen film installation (on view at Modern One from 29 July–10 October 2021) offers a poetic meditation on the life and times of Frederick Douglass, the visionary African American writer, abolitionist, and a freed slave, who spent two years in Edinburgh in the 1840s campaigning across Scotland, England, and Ireland for freedom and social justice. Modern One, Edinburgh -
Exhibition
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July 21 2021
Isaac Julien features in the Royal Academy’s Piccadilly Art Takeover
As Isaac Julien prepares for the UK premiere of his ten-screen film installation, Lessons of the Hour, a highlight of the Edinburgh Art Festival 2021, London audiences will enjoy a single-screen adaptation of the film. Video shorts will be shown regularly, culminating in a 30-minute presentation. Piccadilly Circus, London -
Exhibition
Posted
June 25 2021
Masculinities: Liberation through Photography, featuring Isaac Julien, tours to LUMA, Arles
This major exhibition (4 July–26 September 2021), which originated at The Barbican, considers how masculinity has been coded, performed, and socially constructed from the 1960s to the present day. LUMA, Arles, France -
Interview
Posted
July 22 2020
Isaac Julien talks to The New York Times
Isaac Julien is one of four artists who talk about how they’ve been spending quarantine and just where, in this era of never-ending screen time, their work should live. Andrew Russeth, The New York Times -
Exhibition
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July 13 2020
Reopen and extended – Isaac Julien features in Masculinities: Liberation through Photography at the Barbican
This major exhibition (now extended to 23 August 2020) considers how masculinity has been coded, performed, and socially constructed from the 1960s to the present day. Barbican Art Gallery, London -
Public Art
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April 4 2020
A new mural by Isaac Julien goes on view in La Jolla, California
La Jolla, California, has just welcomed a newly installed public work by Isaac Julien. Julien’s mural, ECLIPSE (PLAYTIME), is a still from the artist's 2013 film Playtime in which he explores and critiques how the flow of financial capital controls the contemporary art world. La Jolla, California -
Exhibition
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February 16 2020
Isaac Julien and Do Ho Suh feature in When Home Won’t Let You Stay: Migration through Contemporary Art opening at Minneapolis Institute of Art
The exhibition (23 February–24 May 2020) considers how contemporary artists are responding to the migration, immigration, and displacement of peoples today. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota -
News story
Posted
January 29 2020
Isaac Julien creates a limited-edition boxed set of five prints for Art Fund’s Prospect Cottage campaign
Julien's photographic work has been created for Art Fund's campaign to protect Derek Jarman's Prospect Cottage and secure its future as a centre of creative activity. -
Exhibition
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January 12 2020
Isaac Julien’s Western Union: Small Boats at Neuberger Museum of Art
The Neuberger Museum of Art features one of artist Isaac Julien’s most important works, Western Union: Small Boats, (on view 12 February–31 May 2020), a video installation that focuses on journeys across the Mediterranean by so-called 'clandestines' who leave Libya to escape war and famine. Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY -
News story
Posted
December 11 2019
Isaac Julien and Yayoi Kusama are among Artsy’s Most Influential Artists of 2019
Few artists have done more to push video art forward in recent years than Isaac Julien… Artsy -
News story
Posted
December 7 2019
Expert Eye: Isaac Julien shares his favourite works at Art Basel Miami Beach
The UK artist and filmmaker shows his regard for long overlooked artists, including Faith Ringgold, Howardena Pindell and Frank Bowling, as featured in The Art Newspaper. Gabriella Angeleti, The Art Newspaper -
News story
Posted
November 26 2019
The US premiere of Isaac Julien: Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement takes place at Art Basel Miami Beach
Isaac Julien’s nine-screen installation (on view 5–8 December 2019) offers a meditation on the iconic work and legacy of the visionary modernist architect and designer, Lina Bo Bardi. Presented by Victoria Miro, Nara Roseler, Jessica Silverman in collaboration with Ron Mandos. Miami Beach, Florida -
Exhibition
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November 25 2019
Guggenheim Bilbao to present Isaac Julien: Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement in June 2020
Isaac Julien’s Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement (on view 25 June–27 September 2020) traverses a collection of Lina Bo Bardi’s most iconic buildings, offering a meditation on the iconic work and on the legacy of the visionary modernist architect and designer (1914–1992). Guggenheim Bilbao -
Exhibition
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October 17 2019
Isaac Julien features in Love and Ethnology at HKW, Berlin
Subtitled The Colonial Dialectic of Sensitivity (after Hubert Fichte), the exhibition (18 October 2019–6 January 2020) examines Hubert Fichte’s writing and takes it as the starting point for new artistic works on questions of representation and restitution. Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin -
Exhibition
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October 10 2019
Isaac Julien features in Migrating Worlds: The Art of the Moving Image in Britain at Yale Center for British Art
The exhibition (10 October–29 December 2019) brings together work by eight of Britain’s leading film and video artists in the first exhibition at the Yale Center for British Art dedicated exclusively to the moving image. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut -
Exhibition
Posted
October 7 2019
Ruby City’s inaugural programme includes an exhibition dedicated to Isaac Julien’s Playtime
On public view from 13 October 2019 (until 2020), Julien's immersive video installation addresses representations of global capital. San Antonio, Texas -
News
Posted
September 24 2019
Isaac Julien’s Lessons of the Hour – Frederick Douglass goes on view at the SCAD Museum of Art
Lessons of the Hour (until 15 December 2019) is a meditation on the life, words, and actions of Frederick Douglass (1818–1895), the visionary African American abolitionist and freed slave, and on the issues of social justice that shaped his life’s work. SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah -
Exhibition
Posted
July 9 2019
Isaac Julien: Baltimore goes on view at the Baltimore Museum of Art
The work (on view 14 July 2019–5 January 2020) unfolds across three videos as a narrative of two people, filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles and an Afro-Cyborg woman embodied by Vanessa Myrie, making their way through significant cultural sites of the city. Baltimore Museum of Art -
Event
Posted
July 2 2019
Isaac Julien and Maria Balshaw in conversation
A discussion between Isaac Julien and Director of Tate, Maria Balshaw (6.30–7.30pm, 5 July 2019), exploring themes of time and temporality in relation to his ground-breaking film Looking for Langston, which is currently on display at Tate Britain. Tate Britain -
Interview
Posted
June 21 2019
Isaac Julien is interviewed by and creates a limited-edition cover for Wallpaper*
The June edition of Wallpaper* features a limited-edition subscribers' cover by the artist and, in an interview with Nick Compton, previews his major new work, Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement, on view at Victoria Miro (7 June–27 July 2019). Wallpaper* -
Review
Posted
June 7 2019
Contemporary Art Society Director Caroline Douglas writes about Isaac Julien: Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement
'A hymn from one artist to another, across generations, continents and artforms…' Caroline Douglas, contemporaryartsociety.org -
Exhibition
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May 13 2019
Isaac Julien: Looking for Langston at Tate Britain
On view until 17 November 2019, Looking for Langston is a film that breaks down traditional divisions between different art forms, and explores Black, queer desire in a setting which has no clear time or place. Tate Britain -
Review
Posted
May 6 2019
Artforum reviews Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour – Frederick Douglass
‘Set in Rochester, the video spectacularly recasts Douglass as a homegrown internationalist.’ Ciarán Finlayson, Artforum -
Exhibition
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May 2 2019
Isaac Julien: Playtime at LACMA
Playtime (5 May–11 August 2019) is a captivating critique of the influence of capital in the art world. Los Angeles, California -
News story
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March 29 2019
Artforum reports on Isaac Julien’s appointment to the faculty of the University of California, Santa Cruz
Julien and independent curator and writer Mark Nash will work together on developing the Isaac Julien Lab at the UC Santa Cruz campus, which will provide students with the opportunity to assist Julien with project research and the production of moving-image and photographic works. Artforum -
Exhibition
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March 3 2019
The world premiere of Isaac Julien’s Lessons of the Hour – Frederick Douglass at Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester,
Lessons of the Hour (3 March–12 May 2019) is a meditation on the life, words, and actions of Frederick Douglass (1818–1895), the visionary African American abolitionist and freed slave, and on the issues of social justice that shaped his life’s work. Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, New York -
Exhibition
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February 26 2019
Isaac Julien: Looking for Langston at the Linda Pace Foundation – Ruby City
Central to the exhibition (28 February–11 August 2019) is Julien’s seminal 1989 documentary-drama Looking for Langston. Also on display are two recently acquired photographic works from the Looking for Langston series, which illuminate the multilayered narratives present throughout Julien’s oeuvre. Ruby City, San Antonio, Texas -
News
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February 5 2019
Isaac Julien’s The Attendant at the Berlinale Film Festival
Julien's 1993 film is screened twice during The Berlinale (7–17 February 2019). In addition, the artist takes part in the Queer Academy Summit 2019 on 13 February. Berlin -
Exhibition
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January 23 2019
Isaac Julien: The Leopard at Block Museum of Art
A presentation (26 January–14 April 2019) of Julien’s groundbreaking 2007 video installation The Leopard (Western Union: Small Boats) – a lyrical and visceral meditation on histories of African migration. Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Chicago -
Exhibition
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January 16 2019
Black Refractions: Highlights from the Studio Museum in Harlem at the Museum of the African Diaspora
This major traveling exhibition (16 January–14 April 2019) features works by Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Isaac Julien, Wangechi Mutu, Chris Ofili and Howardena Pindell. Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, California -
Exhibition
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November 22 2018
Michael Jackson: On the Wall, featuring Isaac Julien and Grayson Perry, travels to the Grand Palais, Paris
Travelling from the National Portrait Gallery, London, the exhibition (23 November 2018–14 February 2019) explores the influence of Michael Jackson on some of the leading names in contemporary art. Grand Palais, Paris -
Exhibition
Posted
August 26 2018
Isaac Julien is featured in Strata – Rock – Dust – Stars at York Art Gallery
The exhibition (28 September–25 November 2018), which showcases groundbreaking moving image, new media and interactive artwork, is inspired by William Smith’s geological map of 1815, which was key in the development of Geology as a science and transformed the way in which we understand the world. York Art Gallery