Steve Locke's Family Pictures and Group Show Confront Racial Violence and Spectacle in Boston

At Samsøñ in Boston from 9 June to 19 August 2017, the exhibition Black + Brown People | White Problems featured works by artists of color addressing uncomfortable conversations about racial violence. Steve Locke's Family Pictures (2016) included archival photographs of lynchings and black servitude in frames engraved with sentimental phrases, requiring visitors to step on a Confederate flag to enter. The show responded to Dana Schutz's controversial painting Open Casket (2016) of Emmet Till, exhibited contemporaneously at the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, which sparked protests about capitalizing on black suffering after its inclusion in the 2017 Whitney Biennial. Locke's work critiques the spectacularization of black deaths, noting that while postcard exchanges of lynchings have declined, images of murdered black bodies still go viral online. The exhibition also highlighted painters Tala Madani and Henry Taylor, whose works Tasered (2006) and Hands In (2005) were praised for their urgent yet reflective responses to political events, such as the acquittal of the officer who shot Philando Castile. The curatorial approach involved an evolving library and new works added throughout the summer, emphasizing adaptive engagement over reactionary opportunism. Protesters argued Schutz's show should be canceled, but the Samsøñ exhibition offered a space for thoughtful dialogue on white supremacy and media exploitation.