Arthur Jafa

I Am Tony is the first US museum survey exhibition of the work of Arthur Jafa (b. 1960, Tupelo, MS) to encapsulate the full breadth of his practice.

Spanning two floors of the newly expanded New Museum, Arthur Jafa: I Am Tony encompasses the practice of one of the most influential artists of his generation. Alongside the premiere of new work, the exhibition will feature Jafa’s most celebrated works, including Love is the Message, The Message is Death (2016) and the Golden Lion-winning The White Album (2019), as well as recent paintings, large-scale video and film installations, and a range of sculptural and photographic objects.

Over a nearly forty-year career, Jafa has sought to find new visual forms to capture the rhythm and realities of Black life in America. Often placing the nation’s growing awareness of the history of institutional violence directed toward the Black community against the backdrop of the ascension of Black culture, music, and entertainment in American national identity, Jafa’s work turns an unflinching eye toward the past while embodying and mirroring our contemporary obsession with masses of images or ‘content’. I Am Tony, named for the legendary jazz drummer Tony Williams, will chart Jafa’s work from his earliest films to recent video installations, mapping the evolution of his filmic language whose syncopations and textures match the aspirations of Black popular music.

Arthur Jafa: I Am Tony is curated by Massimiliano Gioni, Toby Devan Lewis Director, and Gary Carrion-Murayari, Kraus Family Senior Curator, with Calvin Wang, Curatorial Assistant.