8 Standout Artists at the 58th Carnegie International
Artsy
Tara Fay Coleman
The Carnegie International, the longest-running North American presentation of international art, opened its 58th edition at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 24th. Featuring work by over 100 artists and collectives, the 2022 iteration of the International necessitated not only a Pittsburgh-based curatorial team, but a broader international curatorial council and advisory group to help create and shape the exhibition.
Titled “Is it morning for you yet?”—a reference to an expression in Mayan Kaqchikel culture, which is customary to ask instead of saying “Good morning”—the show was organized by Sohrab Mohebbi, the Kathe and Jim Patrinos Curator of the 58th Carnegie International, and associate curator Ryan Inouye, with curatorial assistant Talia Heiman.
Broadly, the show, which runs through April 2, 2023, is a transformative learning experience that considers different histories of abstraction, methodologies of making, and materiality. At the same time, it’s a highly political survey of contemporary artists who ask viewers to consider acknowledging each other’s pains through their work. The exhibition decentralizes art in the United States, presenting work that, as Mohebbi explained, “expands beyond curatorial conceits and categories.”
The broader curatorial team chose not to respond to the pressures of the art market or celebrity culture, and instead focused on using this opportunity to bring different artistic voices to the forefront of international art, seeking works that reflected many versions of the idea of “contemporary.”
LaToya Ruby Frazier
A community health worker is a frontline public health professional who is a trusted member, or has an unusually close understanding, of the community they serve. They often act as liaisons between residents, health care systems, and state departments, and aid in advocacy, outreach, and education for those in need.
LaToya Ruby Frazier’s work More Than Conquerors: A Monument for Community Health Workers of Baltimore, Maryland (2021–22) is a monument to both these workers and their collaborators, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Pittsburgh-born artist, who is showing in the International for the first time, was awarded with the Carnegie Prize for this work.
Frazier’s photographic installation focuses on the health workers she connected with over a three-month period in Baltimore through workshops that were part of a study led by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity. The piece includes double-sided texts and images displayed on modified IV poles that are socially distanced, each focusing on health workers’ stories.
Frazier’s work glorifies and supports these figures while they’re still here, while also serving as a resource to teach about community health work as a profession. Ultimately, the piece provides insight into a specific community, within the context of a pandemic that affected populations all over the world.
Courtesy of: Artsy
