"Lubaina Himid: Make Do and Mend" Book Launch & Roundtable

The FLAG Art Foundation and The Contemporary Austin are pleased to co-present the launch of the publication Lubaina Himid: Make Do and Mend, which accompanies the artist’s solo exhibition, currently on view at FLAG through February 8, 2025. Himid is the 2024 recipient of the Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize. To mark the occasion, Lubaina Himid, David Breslin (Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY), and Christina Knight, PhD (Assistant Professor of Art History and the Mellon Assistant Professor of Global Racial Justice at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ) will participate in a roundtable discussion.

The publication is designed by ELLA and co-published by Dancing Foxes Press, The Contemporary Austin, and The FLAG Art Foundation, and features contributions by Lubaina Himid, Dorothy Price (Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art and Critical Race Art History, The Courtauld, London, UK), Zoé Whitley (Director, Chisenhale Gallery, London, UK), Alex Klein (Head Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, The Contemporary Austin, TX), Julie Le (Assistant Curator, The Contemporary Austin, TX), Jonathan Rider (Director, The FLAG Art Foundation), and Caroline Cassidy (Director of Exhibitions, The FLAG Art Foundation).

David Breslin is the Leonard A. Lauder Curator in Charge of the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Prior to joining the Met, Breslin served as the DeMartini Family Curator and Director of Curatorial Initiatives at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He has also held positions at the Menil Drawing Institute, and Associate Director, Research and Academic Program, and Associate Curator of Contemporary Projects at the Clark Art Institute. Breslin earned an BA from Amherst College, his MA from Williams College, and a Ph.D. in the history of art and architecture from Harvard University. At the Whitney, Breslin curated Where We Are: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1900-1960; An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1940-2017; David Wojnarowicz: History Keeps Me Awake at Nigh; and the Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet As It's Kept. He organized exhibitions including El Anatsui, Raw Color: The Circles of David Smith at the Clark and The Precarious and The Condition of Being Here: The Drawings of Jasper Johns at the Menil Collection. He has written essays on the work of Felix Gonzalez- Torres, Valentin Carron, Jenny Holzer, Cady Noland, Pablo Picasso, and Paul Thek, among others.

Christina Knight is Assistant Professor of Art History and the Mellon Assistant Professor of Global Racial Justice at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. Previously, Knight was the founding director and Assistant Professor of Visual Studies at Haverford College, Haverford, PA, and a Consortium for Faculty Diversity Postdoctoral Fellow at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME. She was awarded a Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowship in 2012. Knight received a Ph.D. in 2013 from Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, in African American Studies with a primary field in the History of Art. Her forthcoming manuscript focuses on representations of the Middle Passage in contemporary American visual art and performance. Knight’s writing has appeared in American History Online, ASAP/J, The Black Scholar, CAA Reviews, and Nka: Journal of African Art.

The Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize selects each recipient based on their outstanding merit, strong record of international exhibitions, and the transformational impact the award stands to have on their career and the Austin and New York communities. A rotating independent advisory committee made up of curators and art historians of contemporary art selects each year’s recipient. The prize includes an unrestricted $200,000 award, a full museum solo exhibition that premieres at The Contemporary Austin and travels to The FLAG Art Foundation in New York, an accompanying publication, and related public programming.

Lubaina Himid: Make Do and Mend was on view at The Contemporary Austin from March 1 – July 21, 2024.

Host or Publisher The FLAG Art Foundation