Carmen Neely’s ‘a trace beyond the life of the body’ at Mariane Ibrahim, Mexico City

Key facts

• Carmen Neely’s exhibition ‘a trace beyond the life of the body’ is at Mariane Ibrahim Gallery in Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City.
• This is Neely’s first solo exhibition in Latin America.
• The gallery is a historic Porfirian-era townhouse near Paseo de la Reforma.
• Neely was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and works between Chicago and Mexico City.
• The exhibition includes paintings with painter’s tape used to obscure and redact.
• A lithograph reproduces Neely’s handwritten poem ‘7.17.2023 you might be willing to spend whatever it takes to fly far from sites that ache.’
• Neely extended her marks onto gallery walls in graphite and pastel.
• Neely returned every Monday to paint privately during the exhibition run.
• The show references Susan Stewart’s ‘On Longing’ and Christina Sharpe’s ‘In the Wake.’
• The exhibition places Neely in a lineage of Black women abstractionists including Shinique Smith, Kenturah Davis, and Mary Lovelace O’Neal.
• Mary Lovelace O’Neal passed on May 10.
• Mariane Ibrahim is among the few Black women–led art galleries in Mexico.