Tavares Strachan, Before the Fire (2020). 2 panels; oil, enamel, and pigment on acrylic. 243.8 x 243.8 x 5.1 cm (overall). Courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery.
Tavares Strachan at Marian Goodman Gallery was another highlight from Art Basel 2020 online viewing rooms.
Cutting through art, politics, and science, Bahamian artist Tavares Strachan’s practice reintroduces marginalised objects and peoples into the cultural canon, inspiring a curiosity of the world in the process.
The Encyclopedia of Invisibility (2018–ongoing) is an ongoing project that weaves through the artist’s initiatives, containing over 15,000 entries—from B-movies to mythological creatures and historical figures. It is the backbone to his current exhibition at Marian Goodman Gallery, In Plain Sight (8 September–24 October 2020), an immersive presentation of sculptures, explosive paintings, and other elements that bring figures swept from collective memory to the fore.
In Before the Fire (2020), a labyrinth of references includes a photograph of American novelist, poet, and activist James Baldwin taken in 1963—the year his non-fiction work The Fire Next Time was published—in the foreground.
Main image: Tavares Strachan, Before the Fire (2020). 2 panels; oil, enamel, and pigment on acrylic. 243.8 x 243.8 x 5.1 cm (overall). Courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery.
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