MoAD Emerging Artists presents 5/5 Collective

Founded in 2017, 5/5 Collective was born from a desire to recognize, support, and make visible the diversity of Black experiences and to encourage dialogue amongst artists throughout the African Diaspora. Each artist works independently, but all dedicating their practices to the exploration of Black(ness) as an idea, consciousness, reference, and embodied experience through space, language, and visual culture.

In black now(here), each artist approaches a unique narrative with an experimental process of their own — Inspired by cultural traditions of Nigeria, Nkiruka materializes an interior landscape through performance and video to construct new portraits that envision a deeper connection to place and home; Tania Balan-Gaubert compiles a “family album” of photographs that feature discarded furniture to address displacement, long-distance nationalism, and belonging; Troy Chew employs collage, painting, and symbolism to speak to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and its effects on the fabric of African-American culture.

black now(here) is an exploration of presence. This exhibition offers space to reflect on what it means to exist in chaotic times and reclaim a sense of belonging. 5/5 retraces their lineages and creates connections between homelands, history, and the present.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website