David Adjaye

May 20–November 26, 2023
Arsenale, Venice

David Adjaye’s Kwaeε (2023) has been installed in Venice as part of the 18th Mostra Internazionale di Architettura, organized by La Biennale di Venezia. Curated by Lesley Lokko, this year’s exhibition, The Laboratory of the Future, which comprises six parts and includes eighty-nine participants, focuses practitioners from Africa and the African diaspora whose work engages directly with the twin themes of decolonization and decarbonization. Of his new sculpture, Adjaye explains, “Acting as an inverted sun dial with shadow patterns that track the position of the sun throughout the day, Kwaeε aims to cultivate and renew celestial, human, and cultural connections across time.”

Sir David Adjaye has been commissioned to create his first permanent public artwork, Asaase III (2023), which will debut during Counterpublic, a triennial exhibition that weaves contemporary art into the daily life of St. Louis, and then be donated to the Griot Museum of Black History. The second edition of Counterpublic, which was founded in 2019 by the Luminary, will run from April 15 to July 15, 2023. The exhibition will consider St. Louis’s complex histories, charged present, and many possible futures, following the footprint of Jefferson Avenue as it charts the pulses of the city from the southern riverfront through the Brickline Greenway at Market Street to St. Louis Avenue in North St. Louis.

Wednesday, June 23, 2021, 2pm edt

Join Gagosian for a conversation between Sir David Adjaye and Rick Lowe, moderated by Thelma Golden, director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, on the occasion of Social Works at Gagosian, New York. Livestreaming from the exhibition in Chelsea in advance of the opening on June 24, the trio will explore Adjaye and Lowe’s shared interests in architecture, community building, and the relationship between space and the Black body. Featuring work by twelve artists, the exhibition includes Asaase (2021), Adjaye’s first large-scale autonomous sculpture, and Black Wall Street Journey (2020–), a new series of paintings by Lowe memorializing the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in Oklahoma. To join the online event, register at eventbrite.com.