Exhibition: Afro Modern - Journeys through the Black Atlantic (Liverpool)

Renee Cox: River Queen, from Queen Nanny of the Maroons 2004
Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic: Friday, 29th January 2010 - Sunday, 25th April 2010 in Liverpool UK.

This major exhibition, inspired by Paul Gilroy's seminal book The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (1993), identifies a hybrid culture that spans the Atlantic, connecting Africa, North and South America, The Caribbean and Europe. The exhibition is the first to trace in depth the impact of Black Atlantic culture on Modernism and will reveal how black artists and intellectuals have played a central role in the formation of Modernism from the early twentieth century to today.

From the influences of African art on the Modernist forms of artists like Picasso, to the work of contemporary artists such as Kara Walker, Ellen Gallagher and Chris Ofili, the exhibition will map out visual and cultural hybridity in modern and contemporary art that has arisen from the journeys made by people of Black African descent.

Divided into seven chronological chapters, from early twentieth century avant-garde movements such as the Harlem Renaissance to current debates around 'Post-Black' art, this exhibition opens up an alternative transatlantic reading of Modernism and its impact on contemporary culture for a new generation.

One of the most controversial artist at the exibition is photographer mixed-media artist Renee Cox. She is known for her remake of Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper with a nude Cox sitting in for Jesus Christ, surrounded by all black disciples, except for Judas who was white. See, Yo Mama's Last Supper. In 2001 some Roman Catholics and former mayor Rudy Giuliani were not amused.