Hannah Traore Gallery

Thank you for joining us to celebrate the opening of “Don’t Touch My Hair” and the incredible artists who made this show possible! And thank you to @ibestwines for their delicious contribution xx Now on view through July 27th ❣️ “Whether body hair, head hair, hair tools, objects made by hair, inspired by hair, or depicting interesting representations of hair, this show celebrates hair as a symbol of beauty, power, and identity.” - Hannah Traore

Don't miss your last chance to experience "Turiya Adkins: More Than a Notion" at Hannah Traore Gallery! The exhibition, featuring Turiya Adkins’ (@turiyadkins ) most recent works, closes this week on June 1st. Adkins' powerful pieces explore resistance through the legacy of Black athletes in track and field and the theme of supernatural flight in African folklore. Her practice is "invested in conjuring visual threads between Black mythologies derived from historical phenomena that engage this tension between flight and freedom," illustrating the societal leaps that intertwine discrimination, migration, and liberation. The exhibition title, "More Than a Notion," is a phrase Adkins learned from her grandmother, reminding us that within each person, there are interwoven realities and mythologies. Through her abstracted atmosphere, Adkins encourages these souls to ascend and roam freely.

Hannah Traore Gallery presents “Don’t Touch My Hair,” a group exhibition curated by Hannah Traore (@hannahtraore ) featuring works by Andy Jackson, Anya Paintsil, Baseera Khan, Brianna Lance, Camila Falquez, Felandus Thames, Hiba Schahbaz, Hong Chun Zhang, Jayoung Yoon, Jazmine Hayes, J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere, Kezia Harrel, Laetitia Adam-Rabel, Marcel Mariën, Murjoni Merriweather, Ma Yanhong, Sheena Liam, and Wangechi Mutu. Inspired by Traore’s 2022 Artsy collection, the exhibition explores the personal and cultural significance of hair. The diverse range of artists approach the subject of hair in unique and deeply intimate ways, coinciding with Traore’s own sentiments on the theme. In her curatorial statement, Traore shares her personal journey with hair loss and how it has shaped her perspective on the significance of hair in art and identity. From the symbolic power of the afro during the “Black is Beautiful” movement to the spiritual and cultural importance of hair in Indigenous communities, “Don’t Touch My Hair” pays tribute to the freedom and resilience that hair represents. The show celebrates the creative ways in which artists like J.D. Okhai Ojeikere, who presents hair as sculpture, and Anya Paintsil, who uses her own hair to adorn her tapestries, have explored the multifaceted meanings of hair. A special thank you to Destiny Gray (@dest1nygray ), whose research and point of view was integral to the success of the exhibition. Join us for the opening reception on Thursday, June 6th, from 6-8 PM. Image credits: J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere, OnileGogoro Or Akaba, 1975 Laetitia Adam-Rabel, Hanging on by A Hair, 2021 Hiba Schahbaz, Self Portrait as Grand Odalisque (after Ingres), 2017 Murjoni Merriweather, S H A D O W, 2024 Camila Falquez, Miss Patsy In Decline (She/Her), 2021 Jazmine Hayes, Code 4, 2022

Join us for a conversation between artist Turiya Adkins (@turiyadkins ) and writer-editor Camille Bacon (@camillegbacon ) in celebration of ‘More Than a Notion’: Turiya’s first solo exhibition, on-view until June 1 at Hannah Troare Gallery Turiya and Camille will muse about how recent junctures in the artist’s practice have allowed her to forsake fear and stride towards a boundless, unbridled and boisterous mode of making. Just as her work seduces our speculative sensibilities, the conversation seeks to further unearth the uncanny enchantment of abstraction, lend more context to the singular fortitude of Turiya’s imaginary, and stay awhile in the wonderment invoked by the instances of “Black transcendence” that serve as enduring sites of inquiry throughout her practice. RSVP through the link in our bio 🖤 flyer by: @bougieboybash

Thank you @nytstyle for featuring our recent pop-up exhibition and dinner series, "Art That Money Can't Buy," in collaboration with multidisciplinary artist and chef Roze Traore (@rozetraore ). The event, which brought together food, fashion, and art, showcased works from Roze's artist residency in Ivory Coast. The three-day event displayed paintings by artists from the United States, South Africa, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, and Japan. The featured works, transported from Roze's boutique hotel in Grand-Bassam will be on display at the gallery through June 1. "Art That Money Can't Buy" aims to build bridges between Africa and the rest of the world while highlighting the importance of giving a platform to historically marginalized artists. We are grateful to all who made this unique event a success. #HannahTraoreGallery #RozeTraore

Thank you for coming! @quillemons “African American Homosocial Studies” at @newartdealers 2024. While photographing his creative contemporaries and friends, Lemons approaches each portrait—silver gelatin prints and archival pigment prints—like a character study. These individuals share his curiosity for challenging mainstream depictions of queerness, aspiring together—as photographer and model—to construct more complex representations of fluid bodies and queer psyches. Through each work, Lemons encourages his friends to own their kink, strive for romantic love, and pursue an unrestrained, bold sense of desire and sensuality that they may not have an outlet for in everyday life. When Lemons first exhibited Quiladelphia, he was overwhelmed by his family’s encouragement, both for his artistic practice and sexual expression. It is through the devoted presence of his father figures—biological, step, and godfather—brothers, and uncles that he was able to explore masculinity in a way that was authentic to himself. #quillemons #hannahtraoregallery

On the occasion of NADA New York (@newartdealers ) May 2-5, we are pleased to present “African American Homosocial Studies,” a solo exhibition of new work by photographer Quil Lemons (@quillemons ). In this series, Lemons continues the themes presented in Quiladelphia, featuring portraits of his friends, harnessing their erotic spirit, and the men in his family, supporting one another across generations. Lemons considers how his own relationship with masculinity, queer identity, sexuality, and Black community have foundations in an unconditional, enduring sense of love. He celebrates each of his subjects for their unique interiority — offering and receiving a profound feeling of self-acceptance. Through silver gelatin prints and archival pigment prints, Lemons approaches each portrait like a character study, encouraging his friends to own their kink, strive for romantic love, and pursue an unrestrained, bold sense of desire and sensuality. In each group portrait, he emphasizes how his relatives look out for one another, create their sense of self, and act as allies of his own work and identity. Lemons is determined to present a vision of Black masculinity based on radical acceptance and collective healing. #QuilLemons #nadanewyork #hannahtraoregallery

“Topographies,” our solo presentation of new work by @mishajapanwala is now on view at @expochicago Booth 226 through Sunday! This series began with an open call: an invitation for women and non-binary people of South and South East Asian, to visit Japanwala’s home and have their bodies cast—offering space and acceptance for their curves, scars, and stretch marks. Welcoming sitters to take a relaxed posture, she then created several molds of the same body, then painted them in brilliant shades of blue, lavender, ochre, and red. Each named after a geological formation, the sculptures confront the self consciousness imposed by cultures around the world, and refuses to tokenize bodies that exist outside of exclusionary standards. Like the land, our bodies must be free. #MishaJapanwala #HannahTraoreGallery

Bringing Chant Down to Tulsa 📍 To close out @sovereignfutures , a four day convening of leading artists, academics, curators, and minds in Tulsa organized by @msallisonglenn , artists @camilafalquez and @luisrinconalba performed “Chant Down,” the series from their exhibition last year at Hannah Traore Gallery, “The Voice Does Go Up.” Awakened by collective chanting, the performance investigates the forces and rebellious energies that inhabit traditional Caribbean songs and explores the anticolonial legacies that gave shape to ancestral percussive and chanting techniques. Together we accessed the vibrational registers—sometimes secret and hidden—in which the history of Black and Indigenous struggle found refuge. #SovereignFutures #CamilaFalquez #LuisRinconAlba

@mishajapanwala at @expochicago 💙❤️💛 Booth 226 On the occasion of EXPO Chicago April 11-14, we are pleased to present “Topographies,” a solo exhibition of new work by artist and designer Misha Japanwala. In this series, Japanwala documents and celebrates bodies with natural rolls, lumps, and fat—creating casts of the human form that encourage us to collectively identify and release shame. Honoring each fold, she reimagines the body as a landscape: a dynamic and shifting natural formation. A topography. Sculpted with smooth edges and in bright colors—brilliant shades of blue, lavender, ochre, and red—these casts offer a vision of a body that is joyful, leisurely, and playful, refusing to be concealed by slimming shades, insisting they are enough exactly as they are. 📸: @zay.ira #MishaJapanwala #EXPOChicago #HannahTraoreGallery

More than an after party 🥂 Toasting @turiyadkins ’ new solo show ”More Than a Notion” at Hannah Traore Gallery through June 1. 📸: @bfa #TuriyaAdkins #HannahTraoreGallery #154Scott

Thank you to everyone who showed up for @turiyadkins ! “More Than a Notion” is now on view at Hannah Traore Gallery through June 1. “They say the people could fly. Say that long ago in Africa, some of the people knew magic. And they would walk up on the air like climbin up on a gate. And they flew like blackbirds over the fields. Black, shiny wings flappin against the blue up there.” —Virginia Hamilton, The People Could Fly 📸: @bfa #TuriyaAdkins #HannahTraoreGallery