To look forward toward a new Juneteenth, or Black Liberatory aesthetic, or more accurately, Black, “liminally enslaved US peoples”-descended art, a truly contemporary figuration, or perhaps, critique (of the old form), would be to update the aesthetics, and their implied politics, closing the gap between categorical representation and reality, between representation and historicity, and then expanding that representation, alongside more complex praxis, assessing structures of power as well as value in Black, enslaved peoples' descended artistry. I often contemplate how calls for the rich and powerful of the art world to take up a more creatively liberatory position is in part due to the work that has happened inside museums and galleries. Shows like: “We Wanted a Revolution,” curated by Rujecko Hockley and Catherine Morris; “Soul of a Nation” at the Tate modern in 2017 and its lesser-publicized (but superiorly informative) contemporary, “The Place is Here,” which ran during the same summer at the South London Gallery; the Art and Practice LA Rebellion show, “Time is Running Out of Time” curated by Jheanelle Brown and Sarah Loyer; as well as major retrospectives of critical/conceptual artists Adrian Piper or Pope L., laid the groundwork for bolder demands of the art world, as well as, of course, the uprising and a pan-disciplinary call for Black Lives [to] Matter in all industries, spaces and systems.

As we gather in exhibition halls, fairs, galleries and museums, and now even on the internet, with the advent of a burgeoning NFT market, in this reopening that will come to define an aesthetic period across all art forms and all communities, we might remain mindful of how the world reopens per Juneteenth’s lesson. The world reopens too slowly for some: the communication lags, it takes years for critical communications to reach those who stand to gain liberation, and too long in Black artists’ careers for incisive, socially engaged work to see its due. Juneteenth is certainly a celebration, but it is also a memorial. Accordingly, we must begin to re-imagine our investments among spectacles vs. structures. Celebrating Juneteenth in the art world means calling up and amplifying the necessary communications – the radical voices – eschewing the desire to figure the captives as celebratory more than deserving and critical, avoiding the opportunism of “outsider,” “emerging,” or “POC” markets and making reparational contributions to descendants of enslaved people in particular, investing in, if not sustainably patronizing artists, in ways that are not tied only to their output, but also their needs and upfront costs, as they try to remain floating and focused in an economy that will gladly pay them to apply their creativity to the distribution of sneakers, or self-care, or some other product that pays to advertise, at least, more than it would to bring the truest self to market. Where the celebration of Juneteenth reminds us of joy, let the lesson of Juneteenth be the need to support critical (liberatory) communication in the arts.

WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO CELEBRATE JUNETEENTH IN THE ART WORLD?

WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO CELEBRATE JUNETEENTH IN THE ART WORLD?