Titus Kaphar at Gagosian Gallery

Amid vibrantly colored décor from an earlier time period, two sisters hold children who have disappeared in Titus Kaphar’s ‘Not My Burden’ at Gagosian Gallery’s 21st Street space in Chelsea.  A much-anticipated follow-up to select paintings shown online when TIME commissioned a cover from Kaphar after George Floyd’s murder, the exhibition features work in which children have literally been cut out of the canvas, representing the anxiety and fear experienced by Black mothers. (On view through Dec 19th.  Appointments, masks, social distancing, contact info and a health questionnaire are required).

Titus Kaphar, Not My Burden, oil on canvas, 66 x 60 ¼ inches, 2019.

Titus Kaphar at gagosian.com

Titus Kaphar’s latest paintings, the subject of a special Artist Spotlight at Gagosian Gallery, take a dramatic turn for the colorful as they continue to explore historical representations of people of African descent.  This standout from Kaphar’s 2015 show at Jack Shainman Gallery takes art historical representation as its subject by exposing two figures whose relationship would remain hidden without a revealing cut.  Kaphar’s new subjects – women in charge of children who have been cut out of the canvas – exist in charged landscapes that are “…a reflection of an emotional and psychological space.”

Titus Kaphar, Falling from the Gaze, oil on canvas, 48 ¼ x 37 ¾ x 1 ½ in, 2014.

Titus Kaphar at Jack Shainman Gallery

After typing ‘Destiny’ (the name of an incarcerated woman he’d met long ago) into a prison database, Titus Kaphar began painting portraits of women with this name in layered works that elide their faces and stories. (At Jack Shainman Gallery in Chelsea through Jan 28th).

Titus Kaphar, Destiny IV, 60 x 48 inches, oil on canvas, 2016.
Titus Kaphar, Destiny IV, 60 x 48 inches, oil on canvas, 2016.

Titus Kaphar at Jack Shainman Gallery

New York artist Titus Kaphar disrupts each of his works, cutting figures out of a canvas to consider the impact of absence, whiting out and redrawing figures or peeling back a layer of canvas to literally reveal a back story. Here, a colonial-era man’s portrait is shredded and stretched to shatter any illusion of a tidy personal narrative. (At Chelsea’s Jack Shainman Gallery through Feb 21st).

Titus Kaphar, Stripes, oil on canvas and nails, 59 ½ x 51 x 1 ½ inches, 2014.