LaToya Ruby Frazier

LaToya Ruby Frazier

Contemporary Arts Museum Houston

LaToya Ruby Frazier, Holland Avenue Parking Lot, 2011. Silver gelatin print, 30 x 40 inches. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Michel Rein, Paris.

June 20, 2013

LaToya Ruby Frazier
WITNESS
June 22–October 13, 2013

Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
5216 Montrose Blvd.
Houston, TX  77006
Hours: Tuesday–Friday 10am–7pm,
Thursday 10am–9pm, Saturday 10am–6pm,
Sunday 12–6pm; Admission free

www.camh.org

LaToya Ruby Frazier’s documentary practice focuses on her family and her hometown of Braddock, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh. Braddock was once home to a thriving steel industry that now lies decaying. Frazier captures this place and the people in it with an unflinching eye that connects her practice with those of socially engaged American photographers like Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, and Gordon Parks. Her work, as she tells it, is “the story of economic globalization and the decline of manufacturing as told through the bodies of three generations of African-American women.” The primary subjects of this chronicle are Frazier’s Grandma Ruby (1925–2009), her mom (b. 1959), and the artist herself (b. 1982). 

LaToya Ruby Frazier: WITNESS features photographs, videos, digital works, and a recent photolithograph series. Prints from the artist’s renowned Notion of Family series will be on view alongside portraits Frazier has made in collaboration with her mother, and works that address the recent closure and demolition of Braddock’s only hospital.

Between 1980 and 1985 many of Braddock’s steel mills downsized or ceased operating, resulting in economic instability and widespread joblessness. Many residents abandoned the town in search of a better life elsewhere. ‘Redlining’ and the politically calculating biases of the Reagan administration’s War on Drugs further debilitated this community. Lacking the means to secure stable housing, Braddock residents have watched homes and businesses fall into disrepair and outright collapse around them.

Frazier’s documentary practice is a form of visual propaganda that is deeply concerned with how power can be identified, claimed, and redirected. While popular opinion may assert that a participant driven by emotional connections to an issue may be too biased to see a situation clearly, Frazier’s work communicates her concerns with the utmost clarity and conviction, affording it a compelling authenticity. The precision, honesty, and economy of Frazier’s delivery make her stories so available that, like a mirror, it lets us see ourselves in her work. 

LaToya Ruby Frazier: WITNESS is organized by Contemporary Arts Museum Houston Curator Dean Daderko and will be on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston from November 12–March 2, 2014.


About the artist
LaToya Ruby Frazier was born and raised in Braddock, Pennsylvania. She earned a BFA from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 2004 and an MFA in art photography from Syracuse University in 2007. Frazier completed the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program in 2011. Recent exhibitions include Empire State at Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy; A Haunted Capital at the Brooklyn Museum; and Video Studio: Changing Same at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Her work has also been featured in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 2012 Whitney Biennial; Greater New York 2010 at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center; and the 2009 triennial Younger Than Jesus at the New Museum. Frazier is represented by Galerie Michel Rein, Paris.

Publication
LaToya Ruby Frazier: WITNESS is accompanied by a bound, illustrated catalogue including an essay by the exhibition’s curator, Dean Daderko, a checklist of works in the exhibition, and biographic and bibliographic material. The catalogue is available in CAMH’s Museum Shop. You can request a copy by clicking here.

Perspectives catalogues are made possible by a grant from The Brown Foundation, Inc.

Programming
In conjunction with this exhibition, Frazier will work with students in Jack Yates High School’s photography magnet program to produce works around the theme “Capturing and Contesting the Changing Face of Houston’s Third Ward.” Yates photographers will explore the boundaries of their historically African American community and document their perceptions of its gentrification. An exhibition of this work will be on view in CAMH’s Cullen Education Resource Room September 1–October 13, 2013. 

Information about lectures by Dr. Kirsten Ostherr and Dr. Courtney Thompson can be found at www.camh.org


CAMH mission
The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is a leading destination to experience innovative art. CAMH actively encourages public engagement with its exhibitions through its educational programs, publications, and online presence. Always Fresh, Always Free.


 

LaToya Ruby Frazier at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
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