A Review of Harlem: In Situ

Curated by Dr. Stephanie Sparling Williams, Harlem: In Situ explores the complexity of this renowned neighborhood, highlighting the work of some of the most important artists working from the late 1920s through today. The exhibition brings together work from the Addison Gallery's collection, new works by contemporary artists and loans from sister museums across the country. However, a significant amount of the work comes from the Addison Gallery, a friendly reminder of what a hidden gem the Addison Gallery of American Art really is. Harlem: In Situ focuses on themes of place, community growth, gentrification, and the evolution of aesthetics. 

On tour with curator Stephanie Sparling Williams and traveling through time, there is a powerful representation of what it means to be black in America. The artists in the exhibition each create work in an effort to understand their engagement with this distinctive neighborhood. Starting in the 1920's, the visitor starts traveling through the Harlem Renaissance and ends with contemporary works like Kehinde Wiley's Officer of the Hussars (2007). 
Music by Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday drifts between the galleries giving the visitor reference in time and context for the overlapping of influences across painting, photography and music. 

These artists and their works investigate the legacy and trajectory of Harlem and how the neighborhood influenced the black experience in America but also art, music and culture for all of America. 

While this exhibition does a great job of displaying the themes of the black experience in America through the lens of a neighborhood unlike many others, the viewer is left facing the reality of systemic racism that exists within the United States. How are we as individuals helping or hurting the system? What can we do to create a shift? These questions weigh heavy, but there is power in numbers and the more aware we are as a society of our own shortcomings, the more we can do to work towards change.