Working amid a turbulent era in US history shaped by widespread social and political change, the seventeen artists in Fade embrace spirituality, surrealism, and nonlinear conceptions of time to locate spaces of possibility.

Many of the artists gathered here make work informed by a relationship to place, drawing on ancestral lineages and collective stories, and tracing continuities between past and present. Some engage the built environment—architecture, infrastructure, and the land—as a repository for memories. Others center a relationship to the body and spirit, using materials and installation methods that register a presence.

The word “fade” carries many meanings: a cinematic transition, a type of haircut, or a skillful basketball move. “Fade” is both a departure and an adaptation, or something receding or slipping in and out of view. Here, “fade” becomes a framework for understanding how artists complicate the idea of determinacy by revisiting histories through abstracted forms, reshaping materials into unique compositions, and making work rooted in reverence and feeling.

Fade is the sixth edition of the “F” shows, a series of group exhibitions that began in 2001 with Freestyle, a landmark in defining contemporary Black art. The “F” shows that followed—Frequency (2005–06), Flow (2008), Fore (2012–13), and Fictions (2017–18)—all featured work by emerging artists of African descent and advanced innovative and groundbreaking dialogues within contemporary art.

Artists in Fade

• Turiya Adkins (b. 1998, New York; lives and works in Brooklyn)
• Harlan Bozeman (b. 1992, Central Arkansas, AR; lives and works in New Orleans)
• Kiah Celeste (b. 1994, Brooklyn; lives and works in Brooklyn)
• Antonio Darden (b. 1983, New York; lives and works in Atlanta)
• Emmanuel Louisnord Desir (b. 1997, Brooklyn; lives and works in Los Angeles)
• Jesús Hilario-Reyes (b. 1996, San Juan, Puerto Rico; lives and works in Brooklyn)
• Y. Malik Jalal (b. 1994, Savannah, GA; lives and works between Atlanta and New York)
• Lola Ayisha Ogbara (b. 1991, Chicago; lives and works in Chicago)
• Andina Marie Osorio (b. 1997, the Bronx; lives and works in Brooklyn)
• Utē Petit (b. 1995, Southfield, MI; lives and works between New Orleans and Los Angeles)
• Taj Poscé (b. 1995, Philadelphia; lives and works in Baltimore)
• Amina Ross (b. 1993, New York; lives and works in Brooklyn)
• Coumba Samba (b. 2000, New York; lives and works in New York)
• Shani Strand (b. 1995, New York; lives and works in Los Angeles)
• Malaika Temba (b. 1996, Washington, DC; lives and works in New York)
• Chiffon Thomas (b. 1991, Chicago; lives and works in Brooklyn)
• London Pierre Williams (b. 1998, Milwaukee, WI; lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA)

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue, designed by Caroline Washington and published by the Studio Museum in Harlem. Scheduled for publication in summer 2026, the Fade catalogue will include a roundtable discussion with the exhibition curators and commissioned essays on each artist, written by Chenoa Baker, Daniella Brito, Ryan C. Clarke, Akili Z. Davis, Destinee Filmore, Simon Ghebreyesus, Josie R. Hodson, Taylor Jasper, Shameekia Shantel Johnson, Gervais Marsh, Tayler Montague, Amandine Nana, Ade Omotosho, Nzinga Simmons, Diallo Simon-Ponte, LaCharles Ward, and Natalie Willis Whylly. Fade will be available for purchase online and in-person at Studio Store.