Groundbreaking Photographer Carrie Mae Weems Makes UK Solo Exhibition Debut at the Barbican

Highlighting the remarkably diverse and radical practice of Carrie Mae Weems, this survey brings together an outstanding selection of photographic series, films, and installations spanning over three decades, many of which have never been seen before in the UK.

The Barbican is hosting the first major solo exhibition of Carrie Mae Weems in a UK institution. Widely considered to be one of the most influential American artists working today, Weems (b.1953) is celebrated for her exploration of cultural identity, power structures, desire, and social justice through a body of work that develops questioning narratives around race, gender, history, class and their systems of representation. 

Weems came to prominence in the early 1980s through photographic work that questions how the representation of the Black subject, particularly within the United States, has historically reproduced systemic racism and inequality.

Images from "The Kitchen Table Series" will be included in the exhibition. This series has been widely studied and has become a pillar in discussions around identity, representation, and the power of visual storytelling. This series has influenced subsequent generations of artists, particularly those exploring themes of race, gender, and the intersectionality of identity.

Having first discovered Weems' work as a photography student myself, I was drawn to her kitchen table series, which depicts moments in everyday life, staged and shot in the space that is considered by many to be the epicenter of the family home. The series is celebrated for its powerful exploration of race, gender, and the lived experiences of black women. These images are full of symbolism and moments that many will recognize within the constructs of their own families, regardless of social status. These images combine photography, text, and performance to delve into the complexities of personal and cultural identity. Through her intimate and thought-provoking images, Weems challenges societal norms, reclaims narratives, and prompts viewers to critically examine their own assumptions and biases.

Highlight works in the exhibition include From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried (1995–6), a series which appropriates 19th and 20th century photographs of African and African American people to underline how the representation of this diaspora has been historically reduced to a set of degrading stereotypes. These works are presented alongside more recent works such as Constructing History (2008), in which Weems worked with college students to recreate landmark moments in 20th-century history to interrogate how they still affect our present, and Lincoln, Lonnie, and Me (2012), an installation that, inspired by the Pepper’s Ghost theaters of the 19th century, examines how the collective traumas of the past are being constantly renegotiated.

Presenting the development of her unique poetic gaze and formal language from the early 1990s to the present day, this exhibition reflects on Weems’ pioneering career. On display are works from her early iconic Kitchen Table Series (1990), which explores how power dynamics are articulated in the domestic sphere and the potential of the home as a space for resistance, to her acclaimed series, Roaming (2006) and Museums (2016), where Weems’ muse confronts architecture as the materialization of political and cultural power. Her oeuvre challenges dominant ideologies and historical narratives created by and disseminated within science, architecture, photography, and mass media. Activism is central to Weems' artistic practice, as she has stated: “My responsibility as an artist is to work, to sing for my supper, to make art, beautiful and powerful, that adds and reveals; to beautify the mess of a messy world, to heal the sick and feed the helpless; to shout bravely from the rooftops and storm barricaded doors and voice the specifics of our historic moment.”

The exhibition is accompanied by Carrie Mae Weems: Reflections for Now, the first publication devoted to the artist’s writings. It will highlight Weems’ influence as an intellectual, reflecting the dual nature of her career as an artist and activist. A public program of events, including a program of films in Barbican cinema, will also run throughout the course of the exhibition.

Carrie Mae Weems: Reflections for Now is on at the Barbican Art Gallery until September 3, 2023.

Lead Image: Lincoln, Lonnie, and Me - A Story in 5 Parts (detail) 2012 © Carrie Mae Weems
Courtesy of the artist, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York / Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin

All images courtesy of the artist, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York / Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin