Reclaiming Histories: Black Feminisms and Visual Art

Reclaiming Histories: Black Feminisms and Visual Art: A Roundtable Discussion features artists Alison Saar, Adia Millett, Eve Sandler, Taller SANAA (Shanna Strauss and Jess Sabogal), and is moderated by curator Ashara Ekundayo.

This roundtable discussion is centered around 11 artworks by 12 women and gender expansive artists of color. The artworks, recently acquired by the San Francisco Civic Art Collection, are now on permanent display at San Francisco International Airport. These works, located adjacent to Alison Saar’s 2021 commission, Flourish, speak to diasporic movement, rootedness, and repair, while discussing the curatorial methodologies that bring these narratives to public space. Informed by Jessica Dallow’s essay, “Reclaiming Histories: Betye and Alison Saar, Feminism, and the Representation of Black Womanhood,” this roundtable discussion will explore how Black feminist artists continue to expand the field of visual culture through reclamation, revision, and resistance.

Dallow notes that Saar’s work performs a “feminist re-inscription of history,” crafting visual vocabularies that both honor and subvert inherited narratives of Black womanhood. This roundtable extends that inquiry by situating contemporary Black women artists within Saar’s lineage, inviting reflection on how material, mythology, and migration converge to shape liberatory aesthetics.

Notably, Alison Saar’s ongoing dialogue with Bay Area audiences—through her works held in the permanent collection of SFMOMA creates a resonant proximity between the Museum’s holdings and this new exhibition of San Francisco Civic Art Collection holdings at SFO. Her sculptures’ physical and conceptual nearness to these institutions provides a rare opportunity to explore how local and international audiences encounter the continuum of her practice across civic and cultural spaces.

Light refreshments will be served.

Directions to the Aviation Museum & Library: www.sfomuseum.org/aviation-museum-library/hours-directions For more information visit sfomuseum.org

Parking: International Terminal A Garage; bring your parking ticket with you for complimentary validation. (Note: Please do not put your parking ticket near your cellphone or metal.) For those interested in taking BART to the airport, there is a stop at the International Terminal.

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