The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion highlights the work of 15 contemporary fashion photographers—from London to Lagos, New York to Johannesburg—whose images present radically new perspectives on the medium of photography and art, race and beauty, and gender and power.

Join us for a conversation with renowned curator and critic Antwaun Sargent and fashion scholar Rikki Byrd as they reflect on the themes, aspirations, and legacy of this acclaimed exhibition.

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This program will take place in person at MoAD, masks are required throughout the museum.

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Antwaun Sargent is a writer, editor, curator, and director at Gagosian. He is the author of The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion (Aperture, 2019) and the editor of Young, Gifted, and Black: A New Generation of Artists (DAP,2020). He guest edited the May/June 2020 "New Talent" issue of Art in America magazine. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, GQ, and in museum and gallery publications for artists Mickalene Thomas, Arthur Jafa, Meleko Mokgosi, Nick Cave, Yinka Shonibare, and Ed Clark, among many others. The exhibitions The New Black Vanguard and Young, Gifted, and Black were both organized in 2019 and are currently on tour.  

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Rikki Byrd is an educator, curator and writer, whose work is dedicated to expanding knowledge about Black contemporary art and Black people’s relationship to fashion. Her writing has appeared in several academic journals, books, and exhibition catalogs, as well as popular media such as Teen Vogue, Artsy, and Hyperallergic. She has participated in speaking engagements at the Studio Museum in Harlem, Google, the CFDA, among several other arts, fashion and cultural organizations and companies. She is the editor of the Fashion and Race Syllabus, and founder of the Black Fashion Archive on Instagram. Rikki is currently a Ph.D. candidate in African American Studies at Northwestern University, where her research focuses on the way clothing and textiles are used in performances of mourning across the Black diaspora.

This program is presented in conjunction with the current exhibition The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion, on view through March 5, 2023.

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