Transmitter presents:

TESTAMENTS by Kris Graves

August 15 - September 6, 2020
OPEN BY APPOINTMENT ONLY

Transmitter is pleased to present TESTAMENTS an exhibition encapsulating works from two recent projects by Kris Graves. The Testament Project is an exploration and re-conception of the contemporary Black experience in America. More often than not, Black people are portrayed in the extreme—either as very rich or very poor, they are demonized, infantilized, ridiculed, idolized or hyper-sexualized; and within the art canon, there is a noticeable scarcity of black representation.

A Bleak Reality is a series of photographs made at the exact locations where unarmed Black men were murdered by police officers. Over the course of eight days, Kris Graves traveled across the country in search of eight Black, male subjects who will never sit in his studio—he has set out to document the physical spaces where, one by one, their lives ended. The following eight names we know well by now, even if we will never know the men (and the children) who wore them. They’ve already been replaced by a crop of new ones that will themselves—either today or tomorrow—also be supplanted.

Kris Graves's photographs spotlight critical societal challenges in America and work to inform viewers about social and cultural issues deserving of more attention. He works to elevate the representation of people of color in the fine art canon; and to create opportunities for conversation about race, representation, and urban life. Graves creates photographs of landscapes and people to preserve memory.

Kris Graves (b. 1982 New York, NY) is an artist and publisher based in New York and London. He received his BFA in Visual Arts from S.U.N.Y. Purchase College and has been published and exhibited globally, including the National Portrait Gallery in London, England; Aperture Gallery, New York; University of Arizona, Tucson; among others. Permanent collections include the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Brooklyn Museum, New York; and The Wedge Collection, Toronto.