PHILADELPHIA, PA - Bringing together the work of 19 diverse artists, Quadruple-Consciousness explores various tactics for representing the complexities of subjectivity in this contemporary moment.  The term itself, a hyperbolic multiplication of W.E.B. Du Bois’ idea of Double-Consciousness, plays within the fractures of post-modern experience, transforming its modes of alienation into provisional possibilities for expression.  Through fictitious portraits, play acting, and alternate histories, these artists seek potential liberties within the uncertainty of irreconcilable identities.  Performance, video, installation, painting, drawing, and sculpture all contribute to this mix of ideas and images.  

A publication will accompany the exhibition.  Contributors include exhibition curator Malik Gaines; artist Michelle Dizon; Eungie Joo, Keith Haring Di rector of Education and Public Programs, New Museum; and Steven Nelson, Associate Professor of African and African American art history, UCLA.

The exhibition will include two performance programs, one at the opening on Friday, December 3, another on Saturday, January 29. 

Malik Gaines is an artist, writer, and curator based in Los Angeles.  He currently serves as curator for the non-profit gallery LAXART in Los Angeles, where he has organized exhibitions of artists including Anna Sew Hoy, Colter Jacobsen and Kalup Linzy.  Gaines has contributed writing to numerous publications and has written catalogue essays for the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Hammer Museum and others; and has contributed monographic texts for artists including Mark Bradford, Andrea Bowers, Glenn Ligon, and Wangechi Mutu.  With collaborators Jade Gordon and Alexandro Segade, Gaines is a member of the group My Barbarian, which has performed and exhibited internationally.  My Barbarian was included in the 2005 and 2007 Performa Biennials, the 2006 and 2008 California Biennials, the 2007 Montreal Biennial, and the 2009 Baltic Triennial.  Gaines is a faculty member in CalArts’ School of Theater.  

Quadruple-Consciousness has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative.

Vox Populi's programs are possible through the generous support of individual contributors, our audience and Board of Directors, as well as the following funders: The William Penn Foundation, Philadelphia Cultural Fund, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage through Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative, Samuel P. Mandell Foundation, Samuel S. Fels Fund, Dolfinger McMahon Foundation, The Barra Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Scion, and Google.

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