Edgar Arceneaux

Exhibitions

Edgar Arceneaux

December 1, 2017—March 25, 2018

Los Angeles–based artist and YBCA 100 honoree Edgar Arceneaux explores historical patterns around race and representation through drawings, installations, and theater.

At YBCA, the artist experiments with the exhibition as a format of presentation. Until, Until, Until… (2015–17) is a multi-media video installation as well as a live action play—written, staged, and directed by Arceneaux—that revisits a controversial performance by Ben Vereen at Ronald Reagan’s inauguration. Complementing this work, Library of Black Lies (2016) is a large-scale sculpture and labyrinth containing a collection of crystallized books—from dictionaries, to encyclopedias, to novels—presenting variants on African American history.

Edgar Arceneaux, Library of Black Lies, 2016. Installation view, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2017. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Edgar Arceneaux, The Library of Black Lies (Invisible Inner Light Beneath the Floorboards), 2017. Installation view, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2017. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Edgar Arceneaux, Library of Black Lies, 2016. Installation view, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2017. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Edgar Arceneaux, Until, Until, Until . . ., 2015–17. Installation view, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2017. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Edgar Arceneaux, Red Ronnie (2017), Green Vereen (2017), and Blue Bert (2017). Installation view, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2017. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Edgar Arceneaux, Until, Until, Until . . ., 2015–17. Installation view, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2017. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

About Edgar Arceneaux

Edgar Arceneaux is an artist working in the media of drawing, sculpture, and performance, whose works often explore connections between historical events and present-day truths. He played a seminal role in the creation of the Watts House Project, a redevelopment initiative to remodel a series of houses around the Watts Towers, serving as director from 1999 to 2012.

Brochure for Edgar Arceneaux

“Edgar Arceneaux is a Los Angeles–based artist whose drawings, sculptures, and films interrogate how we construct history and memory. His sculpture Library of Black Lies (2016) and his installation and live play Until, Until, Until . . . (2015– 17) both create narratives around black history that cast doubt on the possibility of trusting the historical record, and invite the viewer to unpack strata of time and space…”

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Edgar Arceneaux is organized by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and curated by Lucía Sanromán, director of visual arts, and Dorothy Dávila, associate director of visual arts.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is grateful to the City of San Francisco for its ongoing support.

YBCA Programs are made possible in part by: The James Irvine Foundation.

Additional Funding for YBCA Programs: National Endowment for the Arts, Abundance Foundation, Grosvenor, and Members of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

YBCA Exhibitions are made possible in part by: The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Panta Rhea Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies Public Fellows Program, and Meridee Moore and Kevin King.

Edgar Arceneaux is supported, in part, by Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects.

Edgar Arceneaux, Until, Until, Until…, 2015. A Performa Commission for Performa 15.

Lead & Bio image: Edgar Arceneaux, Until, Until, Until . . ., 2015–17. Installation view, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2017. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.