Inside the LA Art Exhibition Showcasing the Black & Brown Experience
Co-curators Antoine J. Girard and Melahn Frierson on their acclaimed art show Shattered Glass.
For Antoine ‘AJ’ Girard, the inspiration behind the name of his debut art show, Shattered Glass, stems from a historic Michael Jordan moment more than three decades ago.
During a Nike exhibition game in August, 1985 in Trieste, Italy, Jordan dunked a basketball so powerfully that it shattered the glass of the backboard, forcing referees to have to reset the game.
Girard, who co-curated Shattered Glass alongside Melahn Frierson, said he hopes their debut show makes a similar statement within the art world, which has a long history of erasing Black and brown bodies. The exhibit features the work of 40 international artists of color, stretching from California to South Africa, at the Jeffrey Deitch Gallery in LA.
“After COVID-19, we had a gap year where things needed to stop. Why would we start and pick it up from the same power structures [that previously existed]?” says Girard. “Let’s make space for everyone to do their thing and to be powerful.”
Shattered Glass, which will be showing through May 22, allows people of color to see reflections of themselves through painting, sculpture and film. Several of the works also explore questions of power, surveillance and justice in the quotidian Black and brown experience while reflecting on radical futures.
Why would we start and pick it up from the same power structures [that previously existed]? Let’s make space for everyone to do their thing and to be powerful.
Antoine J. Girard