HONG KONG.- Gagosian announced Social Abstraction, the second installment of a two-part exhibition curated by Antwaun Sargent. Following the presentation in Beverly Hills this summer, this iteration will be on view at the gallery in Hong Kong from September 10 to November 2, 2024. Social Abstraction in Hong Kong features new works by Kevin Beasley, Allana Clarke, Cy Gavin, Alteronce Gumby, Lauren Halsey, Kahlil Robert Irving, Devin B. Johnson, Rick Lowe, Eric N. Mack, Cameron Welch, and Amanda Williams—many of whom have never before exhibited in Asia.

Social Abstraction centers on experimental approaches taken by an intergenerational group of Black artists who use abstraction to address culture, perception, and our place in the universe. Working in a wide range of mediums—from oil and acrylic paint to ceramics, mosaic, resin, hair glue, wigs, and textiles—they move beyond exclusively formal considerations to engage with themes of identity, sociability, and lived experience.

An untitled canvas from 2023 by Rick Lowe combines elements of painting and collage in complex networks that resemble cityscapes as well as games of dominoes seen from above. Linked to the roots of Lowe’s practice in civic transformation, these abstractions facilitate his meditations on urban geography and communal interrelationships. The velvety layers of dusky colors in CandyLadyBlack (I Can Feel It When You Walk) (2023) by Amanda Williams are inspired by the hues, textures, and tastes of candy. Evoking joy and nostalgia, the painting emerged from a series that pays tribute to the “Candy Lady,” a fixture of Black American neighborhoods who sells sweets to children.

Cy Gavin’s landscape paintings interpret the natural world at micro and macro scales, from the growth of plants to celestial dynamics. His Untitled (Stars through treetops) (2024) uses gestural brushstrokes to suggest a nocturnal view of glittering starlight seen through foliage. Alteronce Gumby incorporates unusual materials including agate and glass into The Fauves Have It and Lose Your Mind and Create a New One (both 2024). The colorful, iridescent surfaces of these paintings reflect a fascination with natural phenomena, human perception, and the history of art.

Devin B. Johnson incorporates both abstract and representational elements into his practice. His painting Diesel Clad Ensemble (2024) depicts a group of men around a car, while Rough Rub (2024) presents a more abstracted take on the transformative aspects of memory, reflection, and imagination. Integrating figurative fragments into a glazed terra-cotta vessel, Johnson’s Head Adornment #12 (Passion Pit) (2024) extends these concerns to pottery. Kahlil Robert Irving’s ceramic works (both 2023–24) mimic conglomerations of urban detritus, but in fact are meticulously sculpted and layered with enamel and digital collages that reflect contemporary material culture. Cameron Welch brings a uniquely contemporary approach to mosaic, a medium with a long history of classical connotations. In his wall-mounted The Labyrinth (2023) and floor-based Relic (Table) (2024), Welch composes marble, glass, ceramic, and stone tesserae into dense compositions of interconnecting lines and broken paths.

Works by Lauren Halsey and Allana Clarke address identity and beauty standards around hair, issues that are especially salient for Black women. Comprised of cascading tiers of synthetic hair in vibrantly contrasting colors, Halsey’s untitled relief from 2024 uses abstraction to invoke individuality, beauty, and self-transformation. Clarke sculpts with hair bonding glue—a material used to attach hair extensions—actively shaping the viscous dark substance as it sets to form the amorphous masses of On Your Way (2024).

Eric N. Mack drapes and layers patterned fabric onto stretcher bars to compose If I Knew Then (What I Know Now) (2024), combining the modalities of abstract painting with the structures, colors, and cultural associations of clothing. Kevin Beasley embeds raw cotton and pigments into slabs of resin to form vibrant, uniquely textured, and historically resonant works.

A zine supplement to the fall issue of Gagosian Quarterly guest-edited by Sargent presents conversations between the featured artists and contemporary thinkers.