Faced in the early ‘90s with racist neighbors who tried to stop her from building a studio on her Jones Road property in Englewood, NJ, Faith Ringgold responded with ‘Coming to Jones Road,’ a series of fabric artworks that celebrated the history of Black people moving to New Jersey. A mini survey of work by Ringgold at Jack Shainman Gallery’s Tribeca space includes, among several pieces from the series, ‘Aunt Emmy and Baby Freedom’ a work featuring a baby who has arrived in the North via the Underground Railroad. Based on Ringgold’s great grandmother, an anchor of the family, the character Aunt Emmy beams down on Baby Freedom, a child embodying the notion expressed in the work’s text that ‘Every last one was born to be free.’ (On view through Jan 24th in Tribeca.)
