MoAD’s physical building may be closed due to the mandatory shelter-in-place, but you can still get your fill of art and artists of the African Diaspora. Each Wednesday at 1:00 pm PST, join MoAD staff members as we visit some of our favorite artists in their studios to see what they’re currently working on and how their work is changing as a result of the quarantine. This is a rare opportunity to hear from artists directly from their studios.

We will follow all talks with an audience Q&A.

Kori Newkirk creates artwork using a poetic combination of images and objects to address issues of place, economy and politics. Born in the Bronx, raised in Cortland, New York, and based in Los Angeles, Newkirk is known for the tension he creates between the narrative weight of his materials (such as pomade, pony beads, newspaper clippings) and larger strategies of formal abstraction.

Newkirk's practice opens up a dynamic conceptual space where science, history, memories and socio-economic truths freely collide with artistic practice and visual pleasure. As such his materials and technical strategies are often an uninhibited combination of the traditional and unusual.

Newkirk has mounted solo exhibitions at The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada; The Fabric Workshop, Philadelphia; LAXART, Los Angeles; and the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle. Works have also been exhibited at the ICA, London, UK; Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France; Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw Poland; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Norway; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach; Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale on Hudson; International Center of Photography (ICP), New York; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle; Santa Monica Museum, Santa Monica; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.

Newkirk was the subject of a ten-year survey exhibition entitled Kori Newkirk 1997–2007 at the Studio Museum in Harlem, which traveled to the Pasadena Museum of California Art. In 2006 Newkirk, was included in the Whitney Biennial as well as the Dakar Biennale.

His work was included in the exhibition Black Refractions: Highlights from the Studio Museum in Harlem which was on view at MoAD in 2019. He was also a guest in MoAD’s annual Engage Symposium in that same year. This year, Newkirk will be honored at the 2020 Orange County Museum of Art Gala

See a list of our upcoming In The Artists Studio features here.

Generous support for this project provided by Art Bridges and the Westridge Foundation

This series is supported by the Facebook Art Department, UNTITLED, Art Fairs and The Art Report.