Group Show 'Embodiment' Explores Representation of Bodies Through Melanin and Pigment at Mitchell-Innes & Nash

The exhibition 'Embodiment' at Mitchell-Innes & Nash in New York examined how melanin translates to pigment in representing Black, Indigenous, and other people of color beyond mere visual depiction. Running from September 12 to October 26, 2019, the group show featured works by Pope.L, Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Cheyenne Julien, and Tschabalala Self. Pope.L's text-based series 'Skin Sets' included drawings like 'Green People Are The Sky Above The City' (2010) and 'Blue People Are An Underwater Airport' (2011), which referenced the Middle Passage and Afrofuturist mythology. His 1995 painting 'Gold People Shit In Their Vale' used a palette of sage, grey, fuchsia, and marigold. Jonathan Lyndon Chase presented large-scale figurative paintings depicting queer Black men shopping for watches, boots, and rings, with fragmented perspectives he described as 'Rubik's cubism.' Tschabalala Self's collaged paintings, such as 'Chop' (2016), constructed Black women's bodies from fabric appliqués in varying skin tones, incorporating fabric from old works. Cheyenne Julien's self-portraits, including 'Can't Go Out, Can't Stay In' (2019), used color to capture tension between interior and exterior selves, with hot pink and green furnishings reflecting on skin. The show was reviewed in the December 2019 issue of ArtReview.