Antwaun Sargent’s New Black Vanguard Exhibition Arrives in London

Antwaun Sargent describes his groundbreaking exhibition The New Black Vanguard: Pictures Between Artwork and Trend as a ‘motion’ – and it’s. The exhibition brings collectively the work of 15 modern Black photographers, primarily based internationally, whose works blur the strains between style, images and artwork. Now on show on the Saatchi Gallery, The New Black Vanguard offers a refreshing gaze by way of the lens of a number of of the brightest younger, Black photographers, together with the likes of Campbell Addy, Nadine Ijewere and Tyler Mitchell amongst others. 

The New Black Vanguard demonstrates the multiplicity of Blackness. Black our bodies are current within the works of all the photographers within the exhibition, however no two of them painting the Black physique in the identical means. Sargent explains the significance of recognising variety inside the work created by the artists, saying “[these image makers] are all dwelling world wide and all creating from their native content material … every of those photographers are enthusiastic about magnificence in their very own methods, enthusiastic about want in their very own methods, enthusiastic about the digital camera in their very own methods and enthusiastic about the various things they should picture in their very own methods.”

That is clear within the broad vary of cultural influences that the photographers draw on, from Ruth Ossai’s Nollywood and Nigerian studio-portrait-inspired pictures, to Quil Lemons’ exploration of gender and masculinity in US Black communities in his Glitterboy sequence. As Sargent says, “What ties them collectively is an identification that’s rooted in Blackness however just isn’t restricted to Blackness being some kind of monolith.”

Sargent first conceived of The New Black Vanguard in 2018, when he was commissioned by Aperture to supply the eponymous ebook. Reminiscing on his course of, he says “it may have gone in any route actually, however what I noticed then was that there was a burgeoning group of Black image-makers of my era who had been making an attempt to make an announcement. A few of them had been breaking by way of and a few of them had already made their very own platforms. I simply thought that if I used to be going to do a images ebook, I wished so as to add one thing to the dialog. I didn’t need it to be simply one other ebook that didn’t say one thing about my era and the way in which that my era is considering pictures.”

Trend images and effective artwork images are sometimes categorised individually, however this exhibition proves that such labels may be restrictive. “It’s unusual that there’s such a divide – the divide solely works to carry folks down, and it’s solely utilized to carry folks down. Photographers make pictures, all people else categorises them … I simply consider it as picture making,” he explains. “I’m extra inquisitive about how pictures journey and the afterlives of pictures. Just like the ebook cowl, which is a Vogue shoot that Tyler [Mitchell] did – I feel that specific picture was concerning the lipstick.” Now, the picture in query – of Somali-American mannequin Ugbad Abdi – is extra more likely to be recognised as an emblem of The New Black Vanguard and as an art work in itself, exterior of the editorial for which it was first commissioned.

Now in its tenth iteration, the exhibition is on view in London for the primary time. Sargent displays on the journey of The New Black Vanguard, saying: “we didn’t plan to tour this exhibition, you already know. It simply occurred that folks actually responded to it – the tradition wanted it on this means. So, I’m simply completely satisfied that all of us got here collectively to do that.”

The New Black Vanguard is on view on the Saatchi Gallery till January 22, 2023.