This show focuses on three artists—Elijah Burgher (b. 1978, Kingston, NY), Toyin Ojih Odutola (b. 1985, Nigeria), and Nathaniel Mary Quinn (b. 1977, Chicago)—who explore diverse identities in portraiture and who do so almost exclusively through the medium of drawing. Burgher, Ojih Odutola, and Quinn have entirely distinct stylistic approaches and personal backgrounds but are connected by the way they use drawing to investigate subjecthood as well as its resistance to depiction. Whether using a highly refined illusionistic approach (Burgher), a broad range of material techniques and media (Ojih Odutola), or a fractured composite aesthetic (Quinn), the artists in For Opacity investigate the relationship between insight and opacity, and what a surface can and cannot reveal.

Organized by Claire Gilman, Chief Curator.

Image: Toyin Ojih Odutola, Paris Apartment, 2016–17. Charcoal, pastel, and pencil on paper, 59 3/8 x 42 inches. Private Collection, New York. © Toyin Ojih Odutola. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.