Hot Off the Digital Press!
Download the fully accessible Inheritance catalogue, exploring Kim Rice’s provocative 2021 exhibition at the Peale. A print version is coming soon too!
Curator’s Foreward:
Inheritance by Kim Rice was scheduled prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and the heinous murders of yet more Black people, some by police, including Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor. In this pivotal historical moment, facing racial divides and the continuous discrimination against black and brown people in America, it is critical to amplify voices around the discussion of equal justice and de-investing in the police in order to invest in real social change in marginalized communities. For years we have seen examples of activism through artwork, but rarely from white artists specifically informed by their privilege as white people. In this exhibit, Rice does not try to tell a story unrelated to her personal experience; instead, she confronts racism by examining the roots of the many opportunities awarded to her.
In her research, Rice discovered documents including the will of her ancestor, William Venable, which identified hundreds of enslaved humans as property. In “Family Values 2,” the Last Will and Testament of William Venable cast a shadow on the wall, as racism and slavery have cast a shadow across generations of United States Americans. Rice’s skin represents a legacy of generational wealth built upon the disenfranchisement of others, as does all “white” skin. From “Naturalization Act of 1790” to works about redlining in the 20th century, Rice lays bare the systems that have been designed to keep white privilege strong.
On June 7, 2020, Baltimore-based artist Jeffrey Kent, along with friends and family, installed his latest work on the front of the Peale building: two large Black Lives Matter banners. Jeffrey’s artwork is conceptual, informed by the historical and the personal, inextricably linked. His passionate investigation of issues related to the political and economic foundations of freedom and the role of responsible citizenship is the thread connecting all of Kent’s collections. We now find this same thread connecting different communities and peoples in this nation, all with the same call, simply: Black. Lives. Matter.
