Antwaun Sargent’s Social Abstraction opened at Gagosian earlier this month. The two part exhibition highlights multi-generational Black artists, and is currently on display in Beverly Hills, while the second iteration will be staged in Hong Kong in September. 

The exhibition features work from artists across all mediums, including Theaster Gates, Cy Gavin, and Lauren Halsey, among others, all sharing their work created from their experiences being Black in America.

An exploration of the lived experience within the Black community, the paintings and sculptures featured in the exhibition serve as a visual guide to the social conscience and unconscious that are often unexplored in the mainstream. Using items such as hair glue, textiles, ceramics, and wigs, the artists use materials unique to their own experiences and practices to tell a story about identity, community, and belonging. 

Untitled, 2024, by Lauren Halsey incorporates multi-colored hair bundles that hang along a wooden pane, a celebration of Black culture, and the idea of physical features changing over time. Hair holds immense weight for Black people, and hair is often added to complete braiding styles. Halsey uses green, orange, pink and purple bundles, examining the culture and self expression the Black community finds in their hair. 

Rick Lowe’s Cavafy Remains, 2024 is a 28-foot collage dedicated to Greek poet, C.P. Cavafy. The multicolored intersecting lines explore urban infrastructure and the ‘domino effect’ that tends to happen in different landscapes. Typically certain parts of cities are given a high amount of financial resources, while others aren’t. More often than not, the communities with Black and Brown residents are left without these resources, leaving these areas underdeveloped and underrepresented.

Social Abstraction seeks to change the latter, creating a space for Black representation, and a platform for Black artists to examine – and share – their experiences. At the opening reception on July 18, the founder and artistic director of A.I.M, a dance collective embodying Black culture and Queer stories, performed, as did dancers Abraham, William Okajima, Donovan Reed, and Gianna Theodore.

‘Social Abstraction’ is on view now through August 30 at Gagosian Beverly Hills. The exhibition’s second installment will open in Hong Kong in September.