Browse Selected Artworks
The Black Lives Matter movement was born in July 2013, when #BlackLivesMatter began trending on social media following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the February 2012 shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin. In November 2014, a grand jury absolved a white police officer of killing another Black teen, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri. Two weeks later, a second grand jury in New York cleared white police officers accused of killing an unarmed Black man named Eric Garner. Following these decisions, local protests in Missouri and New York began to spread across the country, leading to the national recognition of the #BLM movement.
Robert Gerhardt: Mic Check is a photography project by photojournalist and writer Robert Gerhardt, who relied on the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag to track and document these protests in New York City over the last seven years. This remarkable body of work includes photographs of protests from 2014 through 2021, across New York, in massive crowds, in rain and sun, during night and day, in motion during marches and stationary during speeches, and in the past year in the midst of a global pandemic. These candid works capture the passion, righteous anger, and frustration of the protestors. The title comes from the shouts of “mic check!” which mobilized protestors into a game of repeat-after-me, a technique that united the crowd and enabled the spread of the speaker’s comments and instructions without amplification.
These photographs are presented in concert with Carrie Mae Weems: The Usual Suspects in the Fairfield University Art Museum’s Walsh Gallery, and alongside a selection of new works by ceramicist Roberto Lugo in the Bellarmine Hall Galleries. All three exhibitions strive to highlight the fight for freedom and racial justice that the Black community in the United States has been engaged in for centuries -- a movement that has finally begun to gain national momentum since the birth of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
This exhibition is made possible by the generous support of the #UNLOAD Foundation, the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation, and Aquarion Water Company. The Mary and Eliza Freeman Center for History and Community is a community partner for the museum’s programming this fall.
Background image: Robert Gerhardt, Protestors Marching through Times Square on the 5th Anniversary of the Death of Michael Brown, Times Square, New York City, August 9, 2019, silver gelatin print. Courtesy of the artist
All programs will be live-streamed (unless indicated). Recordings will be available on our website and YouTube channel. All times are Eastern Standard. To register, click below.
Gallery Talk: Robert Gerhardt
Thursday October 7, 5 p.m.
Streaming
Art Daily
“Fairfield University Art Museum fall exhibitions focus on racial and social justice”
Art New England
“Carrie Mae Weems, Robert Gerhardt, and Roberto Lugo”
Ebony
"Carrie Mae Weems to Headline Fairfield University Art Museum’s Fall Exhibition Series"
Fox 61 News
“Fairfield University Art Museum exhibitions focus on racial and social justice”
