Skip to content

Lorraine O'Grady

Grey Art Gallery

September 10–December 7, 2013

Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire leaves the safety of home) (1980-83/2009)

Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire leaves the safety of home) (1980-83/2009)
Silver gelatin print; Edition of 20 with 2 AP

Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire and her Master of Ceremonies enter the New Museum) (1980-83/2009)

Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire and her Master of Ceremonies enter the New Museum) (1980-83/2009)
Silver gelatin print; Edition of 20 with 2 AP

Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire asks, "Won't you help me lighten my heavy bouquet?") (1980-83/2009)

Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire asks, "Won't you help me lighten my heavy bouquet?") (1980-83/2009)
Silver gelatin print; Edition of 20 with 2 AP

Untitled (A skeptic inspects Mlle Bourgeoise Noire's cape) (1980-83/2009)

Untitled (A skeptic inspects Mlle Bourgeoise Noire's cape) (1980-83/2009)
Silver gelatin print; Edition of 20 with 2 AP

Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire smiles, she smiles, she smiles) (1980-83/2009)

Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire smiles, she smiles, she smiles) (1980-83/2009)
Silver gelatin print; Edition of 20 with 2 AP

Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire continues her tournée) (1980-83/2009)

Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire continues her tournée) (1980-83/2009)
Silver gelatin print; Edition of 20 with 2 AP

Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire removes the cape and puts on her gloves) (1980-83/2009)

Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire removes the cape and puts on her gloves) (1980-83/2009)
Silver gelatin print; Edition of 20 with 2 AP

Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire begins to concentrate) (1980-83/2009)

Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire begins to concentrate) (1980-83/2009)
Silver gelatin print; Edition of 20 with 2 AP

Untitled (Crowd watches Mlle Bourgeoise Noire whipping herself) (1980-83/2009)

Untitled (Crowd watches Mlle Bourgeoise Noire whipping herself) (1980-83/2009)
Silver gelatin print; Edition of 20 with 2 AP

Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire beats herself with the whip-that-made-plantations-move) (1980-83/2009)

Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire beats herself with the whip-that-made-plantations-move) (1980-83/2009)
Silver gelatin print; Edition of 20 with 2 AP

Untitled (Crowd watches Mlle Bourgeoise Noire shouting her poem) (1980-83/2009)

Untitled (Crowd watches Mlle Bourgeoise Noire shouting her poem) (1980-83/2009)
Silver gelatin print; Edition of 20 with 2 AP

Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire shouts out her poem) (1980-83/2009)

Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire shouts out her poem) (1980-83/2009)
Silver gelatin print; Edition of 20 with 2 AP

Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire leaves the New Museum) (1980-83/2009)

Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire leaves the New Museum) (1980-83/2009)
Silver gelatin print; Edition of 20 with 2 AP

Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire celebrates with her friends) (1980-83/2009)

Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire celebrates with her friends) (1980-83/2009)
Silver gelatin print; Edition of 20 with 2 AP

Press Release

Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art

Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston
November 12, 2012 - February 16, 2013

Grey Art Gallery, New York University, NY
September 10 - December 7, 2013

Studio Museum in Harlem, NY
November 14, 2013 - March 9, 2014

Lorraine O'Grady's Mademoiselle Bougeois Noire (1980-83/2009) featured in Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art at the Grey Art Gallery, New York University.

Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art is the first exhibition to survey over fifty years of performance art by visual artists of African descent from the United States and the Caribbean.

Featuring live performances as well as objects, Radical Presence includes more than one hundred works by thirty-seven artists. The exhibition also presents objects used in performances: costumes, scores, sculptures, and installations, which, depending on when viewers see them, serve as prompts for or traces of performances. Both the live performances and the art objects call attention to the possibilities and limitations of the active body, and the installations reflect some of the myriad ways in which museums have exhibited this ephemeral medium.

Organized by Valerie Cassel Oliver and Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Radical Presence is presented in New York in two parts: Part I at New York University’s Grey Art Gallery and Part II at the Studio Museum in Harlem. For its New York presentation, the exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem is overseen by Thomas J. Lax.