Transcendence: A Century of Black Queer Ecstasy, 1924–2024
January 23 - May 09,2025
From Art Galleries at Black Studies:
"Art Galleries at Black Studies (AGBS) at The University of Texas at Austin announces Transcendence: A Century of Black Queer Ecstasy, 1924–2024, curated by Dr. Phillip Townsend. On Thursday, January 24, AGBS will host an opening reception for the exhibition at Christian-Green Gallery.
Transcendence: 100 Years of Black Queer Ecstasy, 1924–2024 is a multi-venue exhibition organized by Art Galleries at Black Studies. Transcendence will be on view across Art Galleries at Black Studies’ Christian–Green Gallery and Idea Lab, and Art & Art History’s Visual Arts Center. Transcendence presents an incredible 59 artworks across the three gallery spaces. With 50 participating artists, including JEB, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Julie Mehretu, Mickalene Thomas, and Tourmaline, this expansive survey brings a together a wide variety of creative perspectives, exploring nuanced viewpoints across seven thematic sections.
Transcendence: A Century of Black Queer Ecstasy, through a variety of media, highlights visual representations of Black queer ecstasy from the last 100 years that surpass its absence from the historical record. By centering Blackness and queerness, the exhibition considers the potential of queer perspectives around the paradoxes of pleasure and pain, excess and lack, and autonomy and dependence.
The exhibition is organized into seven thematic sections– “Altered States,” “Black Queer Futures,” “Beyond Representation,” “Portraiture,” “Sex and Sensuality,” “Spirituality,” and “Dance and Movement”– across the three participating UT galleries. Together these themes represent the foundations of queer, and especially Black queer, experiences of ecstasy. “Transcendence sheds light on a century of Black queer ecstasy as a vibrant and complex interplay of desire, joy, resistance, and unrestrained self-expression,” curator Dr. Phillip Townsend asserts. “Through art, we witness the ways in which Black queer communities have defied oppression, reclaimed their bodies, and forged spaces of radical celebration—transforming ecstasy into a defiant act of survival and a radical affirmation of life.”
Many works in the exhibition are by artists who identify as queer; some are by artists who lived in times when such identification was not available or possible; and some are by artists who are not queer but whose works resonate with queer histories. By uniting these and other artists from across generations, Transcendence: A Century of Black Queer Ecstasy positions ecstasy and transcendence as central themes within the ongoing evolution of Black and queer artistic expression.
Robust programming associated with the exhibition includes a two-day symposium featuring exhibiting artists and scholars in the field; a performance by exhibiting artist Christopher Paul; a film screening (to be announced); an opening reception; and academic tours and student-centered events throughout the semester.
This exhibition is made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art and a grant from The Mellon Foundation’s Affirming Multivocal Humanities initiative, with additional support from the Visual Arts Center and other units at The University of Texas at Austin.
Image: Bre’Ann White, Deity II, 2015. Inkjet print, 48 x 36 in. Courtesy of the artist © Bre’Ann White.
Exhibiting Artists & Publications Igshaan Adams Aaliyah Arrington Alvin Baltrop Richmond Barthé Belasco JEB (Joan E. Biren) Michael Andrew Booker Vivian Browne Beverly Buchanan Damien Davis Vaginal Davis Kendrick Daye Beauford Delaney Rotimi Fani-Kayode FIRE!! Lola Flash vanessa german Naima Green Jeremy Grier Lyle Ashton Harris Nadia Huggins Juliana Huxtable Richard Jonathan-Nelson Nella Larsen Richard Lewis Alain Locke Julie Mehretu Troy Montes Michie Zanele Muholi Devin N. Morris Rashaad Newsome Bruce Nugent Wura-Natasha Ogunji Lovie Olivia Christopher Paul Dana Robinson Paul Mpagi Sepuya Shikeith Devan Shimoyama Prentiss Taylor Texas Isaiah THING Tourmaline Darryl DeAngelo Terrell Mickalene Thomas Bre’Ann White Didier William Carla Williams D’Angelo Lovell Williams Ajamu X
About the Curator
Dr. Phillip Townsend is the Curator of Art at Art Galleries at Black Studies (AGBS) at The University of Texas at Austin. He earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in Art History from UT Austin (2024, 2016) and his B.A. in Art History from The University of South Florida (2014).
As a founding member of the Austin-based curatorial collective Neon Queen Collective, Phillip co-curated notable exhibitions such as Notes on Sugar: The Work of María Magdalena Campos-Pons (2018) at the Christian Green Gallery and Like the Lonely Traveler: Video Works by María Magdalena Campos-Pons (2018) at the Visual Arts Center. He also co-curated Charles White: Celebrating the Gordon Gift (2019), presented by the Blanton Museum in collaboration with African and African Diaspora Studies (AADS) and AGBS at The University of Texas at Austin. In addition to public lectures, Phillip's scholarly contributions extend to peer-reviewed journals and magazines, as well as essays for exhibition catalogs, including Charles White: Celebrating the Gordon Gift (UT Press) and María Magdalena Campos-Pons: Behold (Getty Publications). At AGBS, he curated significant exhibitions such as Wura-Natasha Ogunji: earth, body, spirit, and Melvin Edwards: WIRE(D) + CHAIN(ED), featuring the work of Houston native and African American art and sculpture pioneer Melvin Edwards. Phillip's recent exhibitions at AGBS include Michael A. Booker: Wave Patterns and Alicia Henry: (un)knowing, Nicole Awai: In the thick of it, and Rashaun Rucker: Patron Saints of a Black Boy.
About the Art Galleries at Black Studies
The University of Texas at Austin’s Art Galleries at Black Studies (AGBS) is a collecting institution whose mission is to acquire, preserve, interpret, exhibit, and otherwise make accessible modern and contemporary art and cultural materials related to the Black experience for the benefit of all audiences. Comprised of two principal galleries — Christian-Green Gallery and Idea Lab — and six project spaces, AGBS's exhibitions and programs serve communities on and off campus and engage with the larger art worlds. AGBS’s exceptional collection —numbering nearly 1,300 objects — is the core of its identity, and it sustains and catalyzes all we do.
Founded in 2016, The University of Texas at Austin’s Art Galleries at Black Studies (AGBS) is the sole on-campus entity at The University of Texas at Austin dedicated to art about the Black experience. As a preeminent cultural asset of Black Studies at The University of Texas at Austin, it is a center for teaching, learning, and scholarship. AGBS serves as a forum for the creative and critical expression of artists, historians, and curators.
The University of Texas at Austin’s Art Galleries at Black Studies (AGBS) is open to all, free of charge, and is committed to fostering feelings of ownership of art and visual culture in diverse audiences.
Exhibition Locations Christian–Green Gallery / 201 E 21st St, A232, Austin, TX 78705 On view January 24–May 9, 2025
Open Wednesday to Friday, 12 to 5 pm
Open Saturday, 11 am to 2 pm
Free Admission
Idea Lab / 210 E 24th Street, Gordon-White Building 2.204 On view January 24–May 9, 2025 Open Tuesday to Friday, 12–5 p.m.
Open Saturday, by appointment only
Free Admission
Visual Arts Center / 2301 San Jacinto Blvd. On view January 24–March 8, 2025 Open Tuesday to Saturday, 12–5 p.m.
Free Admission
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Reception: January 23, 2025 | 5-7 pm
