Curating at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2020

My core artistic premise and point of departure to curate the first two galleries of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, Summer Exhibition 2020 was to pay homage to my friend, the late, great curator, writer, and poet, Okwui Enwezor, whom both Mark Nash and I were fortunate enough to work with on nearly all of Okwui's exhibitions and projects, from Documenta11 (2002) to the 56th Venice Biennale (2015). Instead of a thesis or concept, I wanted to bring together artists for whom the interlocution with Okwui was decisive in various ways, to present distinct poetics from different generations and backgrounds, and to see what reflections would emerge from that.

Installation view of Summer Exhibition 2020 (October 6, 2020–January 3, 2021) at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, showing Isaac Julien, Lessons of the Hour, London 1983—Who Killed Colin Roach, 2019. Photographic assemblage of 32 black-and-white Ilford FB Classic silver gelatin prints (each 45 × 64 cm.). Artwork: Courtesy the artist, Victoria Miro, London/Venice, and Metro Pictures, New York. Photo: © Royal Academy of Arts/David Parry

Needless to say, the global scenario was dramatically different when I was first invited to collaborate in this edition of the Summer Exhibition. Not that the social and political convulsion wasn't there; it has been piling up for decades and centuries. But, as if Trump and Brexit weren't enough to deal with, we seemed to have entered a watershed moment to debate racial inequality while reeling from a major global health crisis at the same time. The show was postponed, new dynamics had to be invented to work together; therefore, the Summer Exhibition, from my point of view, had to combine its traditional role of showcasing the present of art with the historic imperative to reflect critically.

Quite organically, I realized there were interesting connections with some of the themes addressed in the group show Rock My Soul, which I curated for Victoria Miro Gallery, London, in 2019, inspired by ideas by bell hooks and Okwui, among other authors. Put broadly, this selection of works questioned the cultural establishment in various ways, with a few of the poetics seen there specifically voicing Black self-esteem within contemporary art.

With the prominence (painstakingly) obtained by Black Lives Matter, the Summer Exhibition gained a kind of resonance that it probably wouldn't have had a year ago. Even as I look at my own work, such as the photography collage suite Lessons of the Hour,

Installation view of Summer Exhibition 2020 (October 6, 2020–January 3, 2021) at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, showing Yinka Shonibare, Air Kid (Girl). Fiberglass mannequin, Dutch wax printed cotton textile, globe, brass, steel baseplate, umbrella. Back right: Oscar Murillo, Manifestation, 2019. Oil, oil stick, cotton thread, and graphite on velvet, canvas, and linen. Back left: Denzil Forrester, Echo Them, 2020. Oil on canvas. Photo: © Royal Academy of Arts/David Parry

Installation view of the Summer Exhibition 2020 (October 6, 2020–January 3, 2021) at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Left: El Anatsui, Castle in the Cloud, 2020. Aluminum copper wire, 33.9 × 22.6 cm. Right: Frank Bowling, Watermelon Bright, 2020. Acrylic on canvas, 185.4 × 297.2 cm. Photo: © Royal Academy of Arts/David Parry

London 1983—Who Killed Colin Roach? (2019), I revisit history and our contemporary reality in new ways. That very piece, of course, is one that received a lot of attention from the outlets covering the show such as the Guardian, the Art Newspaper, and the Evening Standard, which clearly reaffirms how urgent it is to ask ourselves why have we have improved so little between the deaths of Colin Roach in 1983 in London and those of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and so many others in 2020.

Further—and more timely—related reflections will certainly emerge from the exhibition Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America, originally conceived by Okwui Enwezor...