In the Gold Gallery, Gussman Entrance Hall, and outside the Museum
Dates subject to change
Nigerian American artist and poet Precious Okoyomon (born 1993) presents a new commission in three parts, deepening the artist’s engagement in racial and colonial histories of the natural world, with sculptural and installation-based artworks that offer explorations of both content and form. The new works are in part inspired by Okoyomon’s extended research and teaching engagements with Cornell students, faculty, and staff, which began with Okoyomon’s appointment as the Johnson Museum’s first Migrations Visiting Artist in 2022.
On view beginning in August, Theory of a Curve is an earthwork surrounding the Museum. Opening in October, The Self Grows Forward Out of its Reference (in the Gold Gallery on Floor 2L), will consist of an exhibition of new works in sculpture, whose materials and forms develop and expand the artist’s visual thinking; and Horizontal Cosmology (in the Gussman Entrance Hall) will provide a “library for pollination” with books that influence Okoyomon’s practice.
This exhibition was curated by Gemma Rodrigues, the Ames Director of Education and Curator of the Global Arts of Africa at the Johnson Museum. It is the third in a series of exhibitions developed in conjunction with the Migrations Global Grand Challenge, part of Global Cornell, with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Just Futures Initiative. Support has also been made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
All plants included in the earthwork Theory of a Curve are allowed by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
Above: Every Earthly Morning the Sky’s Light Touches Ur Life is Unprecedented in its Beauty (2021), exhibition view at the Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO. Courtesy of Precious Okoyomon and the Aspen Art Museum.