Positive Fragmentation

View of the museum from outside showing the Neoclassical building from one corner. The building is a tan-colored stone with an arched doorway, long vertical windows, and detailed molding around the roof.
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Positive Fragmentation: Time and (Sub)text

Posted: May 11, 2022
Category: Positive Fragmentation
Learn about artists in Positive Fragmentation, including Julie Mehretu, Barbara Takenaga, and Ellen Gallagher, who use the act of deconstruction to explore concepts of time.
Alternating strands of white, black, and rust-colored orbs resembling beads emanate from a central point. They create a mesmerizing design and the shape of a X in the middle.

Positive Fragmentation: Wangechi Mutu on the Black Body

Posted: March 23, 2022
Category: Positive Fragmentation
In the NMWA-organized exhibition Positive Fragmentation, Wangechi Mutu's collages of Black female hybrid figures illuminate inequities at the intersection of race and gender.
A group of twelve images in a grid shows faces that are collaged together from various separate images showing facial features, internal organs, and ambiguous elements. Most of the faces appear to show women with dark skin tone, and the other images evoke medical illustrations.Any detail must be accompanied by a grid image of all works in series

Positive Fragmentation: Built Environments

Posted: February 23, 2022
Category: Positive Fragmentation
Several artists in Positive Fragmentation address the built spaces we inhabit. Learn about the works of Nicola López (b. 1975), Sarah Morris (b. 1967), and Swoon (b. 1977).
Mixed media work on paper depicts a tangle of colorful forms in the center of the paper. Some forms are printed abstracted architectural structures and pipes. Other forms are made out of mylar and represent hoses and plastic fencing.

Positive Fragmentation: Making New Meaning

Posted: February 2, 2022
Category: Positive Fragmentation
In the NMWA-organized exhibition Positive Fragmentation, Betye Saar and Wendy Red Star construct new meanings and iconographies through assemblage of repurposed imagery.
This colorful collage/print features cut-out photographs of three pickup trucks covered in vibrant, geometric-patterned, Native American blankets atop a blue, pink, and red geometric background. A few men and women populate the vehicles, some sitting on the back bumper, others on the roof. Above and below this segment are alternating layers of green, red, and orange stripes, and red stars on a muted yellow background.