Best of Orlando® 2017
Staff Pick
Best Exhibition Triad
photo of Pat Evans by Anthony Barboza, from 'Posing Beauty'
AfroFantastic and The Black Figure in the European Imaginary
Cornell Museum of Fine Art, cfam.rollins.edu
Posing Beauty
Snap! Space and Snap! Downtown, snaporlando.com
Museum life in Orlando began 2017 with an unparalleled triple whammy against the status quo, inspiring a reappraisal of the white gaze and a centering of blackness. The historic documentation of Cornell Fine Arts Museum's The Black Figure in the European Imaginary, installed side-by-side with the modern and futuristic AfroFantastic: Black Imagination and Agency in the American Experience, as well as Snap! Orlando's trove of portraits Posing Beauty in African American Culture, drew a representational beeline from the lens of white perception to empowerment through self-portrayal, then fantastically on to magical ideals entirely independent of whiteness.
