St. Louis Wing Week Returns April 8-15, 2024

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Liz Johnson Artur, Josephine, Peckham, 1995. Chromogenic photograph, 20 x 24 inches. Courtesy the artist. © Liz Johnson Artur

Liz Johnson Artur: Dusha

When: Fri., Jan. 17, 7-9 p.m., Thursdays, Fridays, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. and Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Continues through April 19 2020

For Liz Johnson Artur, the African diaspora was an everyday reality. The Russian-Ghanaian artist grew up in Bulgaria, Germany and Russia, where she was far from people who looked like her. The experience of finding her own community when she came to America in the 1980s galvanized her work, and for the past 30 years she has photographed the survivors of the diaspora in the Caribbean, Europe and Africa. Johnson Artur has captured people celebrating in street scenes, nightclubs and private homes, and her keen eye for composition and style reveals a world of fashion and dramatic posture; more than that, her work places her subjects in art galleries and museums. Liz Johnson Artur: Dusha (the Russian word for "soul") is her first solo museum exhibition, and it comprises videos, sketchbooks and photographs. Dusha comes to the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (3750 Washington Avenue; www.camstl.org) by way of the Brooklyn Museum, and opens with a free public reception from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, January 17. It remains on display through April 19.

— Paul Friswold