At 81, her first solo show at home
Lorraine O’Grady, who thrives on juxtapositions, explains her art and influences
Susan Saccoccia
Harvard Correspondent
November 20, 2015
Just a year ago, the Harvard Art Museums reopened, uniting works from three museums under one roof. One of the inaugural exhibition’s most alluring discoveries awaited visitors in the Egypt Room. Among the ancient objects were two paired photographs of a young African-American woman and of Egyptian queen Nefertiti and her sister.
In these diptychs, American conceptual artist Lorraine O’Grady connected a personal story — her mixed-race heritage — with a larger history spanning millennia. Such evocative juxtapositions occur often in the art of O’Grady, whose works are in the collections of many leading museums, including the Harvard Art Museums.
O’Grady visited the Art Museums Tuesday night to deliver an M. Victor Leventritt Lecture in collaboration with Harvard’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts. The Carpenter Center, located next door to the Harvard Art Museums, has an exhibition through Jan. 10 titled “Lorraine O’Grady: Where Margins Become Centers.” Curated by John R. and Barbara Robinson Family Director James Voorhies, the show samples O’Grady’s works in photography, film, collage, performance, and writing from 1980 to 2012.( … )