Adrienne Elise Tarver, With anticipation, 2024. Installation image. Photo: Nicholas Knight, courtesy of Public Art Fund, NY. Presented by Public Art Fund as part of Adrienne Elise Tarver: She who sitsan exhibition at 300 JCDecaux bus stops in New York, Chicago and Boston, August 14, 2024 – November 24, 2024.
Adrienne Elise Tarver’s latest outdoor exhibition, She who sitsis a multi-city experience that explores femininity and the power of the black matriarch. Presented by the Public Art Fund and media company JCDecaux, the six works featured in the exhibition span more than three hundred bus stops in New York City, Boston, and Chicago.
The six paintings in She who sits depict women sitting in various intimate situations, playing with the idea of rejecting perception and reclaiming spaces through the lens of a black woman. The matriarchal figures in the paintings convey a sense of strength through the power of radical calm. Inspired by black actresses such as the iconic Dorothy Dandridge and Lena Horne, Tarver created figures that exude a level of elegance while also portraying maturity, sophistication, and sexiness.
The warm tones and shadows of the pieces convey a lightness that these women exude, and although they are seated in relaxed positions, they all exude a self-affirming energy. Several of the works in the exhibition feature a fictional character, Vera Otis, who Tarver has developed over the past decade. Through Otis’ development as a character, Tarver is able to explore her own roots and depict stories from her own life as a black woman.
Adrienne Elise Tarver is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist working in painting, sculpture, installation, photography, textiles, and video. Her work aims to highlight the identity of black women, a group largely forgotten not only in the art world but also in the societal context.
The Public Art Fund is a non-profit organization dedicated to curating free contemporary artworks and combining them in various urban spaces in metropolitan cities like New York and beyond. Their exhibitions are free to the public, which provides a larger audience the opportunity to engage with art without financial constraints.
“She Who Sits” is presented by Public Art Fund and JCDecaux and is on view in New York City, Boston and Chicago through November 24.
