Sep, 15, 2021
Major GiftsSpecial Events and Programs
Phoenix Art Museum names Derek Fordjour as speaker for fall Lenhardt Lecture
New York-based artist will present an in-person and virtual public lecture on October 27; newly acquired painting by Fordjour on view this fall at PhxArt
PHOENIX (September 15, 2021) – On October 27, 2021, Phoenix Art Museum will present internationally renowned artist Derek Fordjour as the speaker for the Museum’s fall Lenhardt Lecture, a key component of the Dawn and David Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative. Fordjour is renowned for his large-scale paintings, sculptures, and installations that examine the power, performance, vulnerabilities, and martyrdom inherent in the Black experience. The 2021 Lenhardt Lecture featuring the New York-based artist coincides with the recent acquisition of the artist’s large-scale painting The Futility of Achievement (2020), which will be on view this fall in the Museum’s Katz Wing for Modern Art and is the first artwork acquired with funds from the newly expanded Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative. This year’s Lenhardt Lecture will be presented at 6:30 pm on October 27, 2021 both in-person at Phoenix Art Museum and virtually over Zoom. Tickets are complimentary and can be reserved here. In-person seating will be limited, and face masks are strongly encouraged. To view the Museum’s most up-to-date COVID-19 visitor policies, visit phxart.org/visit/.
“We are very excited to welcome Derek Fordjour as the speaker for the Museum’s Lenhardt Lecture this fall,” said Mark Koenig, the Interim Sybil Harrington Director and CEO of Phoenix Art Museum. “We are deeply grateful to Dawn and David Lenhardt, whose ongoing generosity and landmark initiative has made it possible for the Museum to expose the Valley community to today’s most acclaimed artists including Derek Fordjour. We encourage our community to attend the lecture to learn more about Fordjour’s deeply important work and experience a poignant example that we are now thrilled to feature in the Phoenix Art Museum collection.”
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, to parents of Ghanaian heritage and now based in New York, Derek Fordjour creates multilayered and materially diverse works. His large-scale paintings, sculptures, and more often center Black athletes, performers, and others who play key roles in cultural rituals to highlight the futility of exceptionalism and underscore the ways in which competition, sporting, and other rules-based systems can lead to tokenism, gender inequality, and further systemic inequity for marginalized communities.
“For several years now, we have witnessed an incredible moment in which Black figurative art has dominated the cultural landscape,” said Gilbert Vicario, curator of modern and contemporary art at Phoenix Art Museum. “Derek Fordjour’s work both celebrates and interrogates the aesthetic, psychological, and political nuances of Black life in the United States through an inventive artistic practice that employs elements of collage and painting. Using materials such as cardboard and newspaper, Fordjour builds up layers of color and surface onto the canvas and then cuts into them to reveal colorful substrates that add a textural and emotional element to his compositions.”
“Derek Fordjour’s work both celebrates and interrogates the aesthetic, psychological, and political nuances of Black life in the United States through an inventive artistic practice that employs elements of collage and painting.”
Gilbert Vicario, curator of modern and contemporary art
A graduate of Morehouse College, Fordjour earned a Master’s degree in art education from Harvard University and an MFA in painting at Hunter College. His work has been exhibited in numerous venues, including Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Nasher Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Reviews and features on his work have appeared in The New York Times, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, Hyperallergic, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, and Forbes Magazine, among many others. His work is in several private and public collections, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Brooklyn Museum, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Dallas Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and LACMA.
“Dawn and I are very pleased to welcome Derek Fordjour as the next speaker for the Lenhardt Lecture,” said David Lenhardt, vice chair of the Museum’s Board of Trustees. “Fordjour’s process and approach to art-making create layers of meaning, resulting in powerful works that encourage viewers to engage with the defining social issues of our time. We were honored to help Phoenix Art Museum acquire Fordjour’s work The Futility of Achievement, which further diversifies the Museum’s contemporary art collection and exposes our community to art that speaks to and challenges narratives surrounding social equity and equality. We can think of no better way to celebrate the recent expansion of the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative than by welcoming Fordjour to Phoenix this October.”
Fordjour’s large-scale painting The Futility of Achievement (2020) is the first work acquired into the Museum’s collection with funds from the newly reimagined Lenhardt Contemporary Art initiative, which seeks to diversify the contemporary art collection of Phoenix Art Museum through the acquisition of works by artists contributing to discourses on race, gender, and other socially relevant concerns, including those by Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and women artists, among others. The Futility of Achievement was previously featured in SELF MUST DIE at Petzel Gallery in New York City, a solo exhibition that explored anxieties surrounding hyper-visible racial violence and contrasted the inevitability of actual death—made more urgent by the COVID-19 pandemic—with the aspirational death of the artist’s ego. The work (pictured above) will be on view this fall in the Museum’s Marshall and Hendler Galleries in the lower level of the Katz Wing for Modern Art.
Fordjour is the upcoming speaker for the fall Lenhardt Lecture, which was inaugurated in 2018 as part of the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative. Previous speakers include internationally renowned artists Jim Hodges, Shara Hughes, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Arcmanoro Niles, and Teresita Fernández in conversation with Amalia Mesa-Bains. In addition to diversifying the contemporary art collection of Phoenix Art Museum, the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative increases access to major, international artists working today for the broader Phoenix community. For more information about the Lenhardt Lecture or the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative, contact the Communications Office of Phoenix Art Museum at 602.257.2105 or samantha.andreacchi@phxart.org.
About Phoenix Art Museum
Since 1959, Phoenix Art Museum has provided millions of guests with access to world-class art and experiences in an effort to ignite imaginations, create meaningful connections, and serve as a brave space for all people who wish to experience the transformative power of art. Located in Phoenix’s Central Corridor, the Museum is a vibrant destination for the visual arts and the largest art museum in the southwestern United States. Each year, more than 300,000 guests engage with critically acclaimed national and international exhibitions and the Museum’s collection of more than 20,000 works of American and Western American, Asian, European, Latin American, modern and contemporary art, and fashion design. The Museum also presents a comprehensive film program, live performances, and educational programs designed for visitors of all ages, along with vibrant photography exhibitions made possible through the Museum’s landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona. To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum, visit phxart.org, or call 602.257.1880.
About the Dawn and David Lenhardt Lecture and the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative
The Dawn and David Lenhardt Lecture engages Valley audiences with some of the most acclaimed contemporary artists in the world. In 2018, the inaugural lecture presented New-York based artist Jim Hodges, and subsequent lectures have featured artists Shara Hughes, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Arcmanoro Niles, Teresita Fernández, and Amalia Mesa-Bains.
The Lenhardt Lecture is a key component of the Dawn and David Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative. Made possible through the generosity of the Arizona-based Lenhardt family, the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative was established in 2017 to deepen the Museum’s commitment to contemporary art through various programs, namely the Lenhardt Lectures, which engage Valley audiences with some of the most acclaimed contemporary artists in the world; the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Acquisition Fund, which enables Phoenix Art Museum to collect works by contemporary artists; and the Dawn and David Lenhardt Gallery, designated for the presentation of contemporary art, including works acquired with funds from the Lenhardt Contemporary Art Initiative, loans from national and local collectors, and a rotating series of artworks from the Lenhardts’ own collection. In 2021, the initiative was expanded to support the diversification of the contemporary art collection of Phoenix Art Museum through the acquisition of works by artists contributing to discourses on race, gender, and other socially relevant concerns, including those by Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and women artists, among others.
About Derek Fordjour
Derek Fordjour was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to parents of Ghanaian heritage. His work has been exhibited in numerous venues, including Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Nasher Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He has received commissions for public projects, including a permanent installation for Metropolitan Transit Authority of New York City at 145th Street Subway Station and The Whitney Museum Billboard Project. He was awarded the 2016 Sugarhill Museum Artist-in-Residence, the 2017 Sharpe Walentas Studio Program in New York City, and the 2018 Deutsche Bank NYFA Fellowship Award. Fordjour is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, and earned a Master’s Degree in art education from Harvard University and an MFA in painting at Hunter College. His work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, and Hyperallergic. He has also been featured in several publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, and Forbes Magazine. He was recently appointed The Alex Katz Chair at Cooper Union and serves as a Core Critic at Yale University School of Art. His work also appears in several collections, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Brooklyn Museum, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Dallas Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and LACMA.