Image: Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
The Studio Museum in Harlem is preparing to open 'Fade', a group exhibition of work by 17 artists that the museum describes as the sixth edition of its long-running 'F' show series. On view through September 6, 2026, at the museum’s Harlem building, the exhibition brings together emerging artists of African descent working across spirituality, surrealism and nonlinear ideas of time.
According to the museum, 'Fade' was shaped around a turbulent period in US history marked by widespread social and political change. The artists gathered for the show use those conditions as a point of departure for work that seeks spaces of possibility rather than fixed conclusions. The exhibition text says many of the artists are responding to place, ancestral lineages and collective stories, tracing continuities between past and present while working with abstracted forms and materials that register presence.
The museum frames the title itself as a concept with multiple meanings. 'Fade' can refer to a cinematic transition, a haircut or a basketball move, and the curatorial text presents it as both a departure and an adaptation, or something that slips in and out of view. In that sense, the exhibition uses the word as a framework for considering how artists complicate determinacy by revisiting histories, reshaping materials and working with reverence and feeling.
The artist list includes Turiya Adkins, Harlan Bozeman, Kiah Celeste, Antonio Darden, Emmanuel Louisnord Desir, Jesús Hilario-Reyes, Y. Malik Jalal, Lola Ayisha Ogbara, Andina Marie Osorio, Utē Petit, Taj Poscé, Amina Ross, Coumba Samba, Shani Strand, Malaika Temba, Chiffon Thomas and London Pierre Williams. The museum says some of the artists engage architecture, infrastructure and land as repositories for memory, while others center the body and spirit through installation methods and material choices.
'Fade' also extends a series with a notable place in the Studio Museum’s history. The museum says the 'F' shows began in 2001 with 'Freestyle', described as a landmark in defining contemporary Black art. Later editions included 'Frequency' (2005–06), 'Flow' (2008), 'Fore' (2012–13) and 'Fictions' (2017–18). The museum’s announcement presents 'Fade' as a continuation of that lineage, which has repeatedly focused on emerging artists of African descent and on new forms of dialogue within contemporary art.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue designed by Caroline Washington and published by the Studio Museum in Harlem. Scheduled for summer 2026, the publication will include a roundtable with the curators and commissioned essays on each artist. The museum says the catalogue will be available online and at Studio Store. 'Fade' is organized by Adria Gunter, Habiba Hopson, Yelena Keller, Jayson Overby Jr. and Kiki Teshome, with support from the museum’s curatorial fellows and research contributors.
The exhibition is listed at the Studio Museum in Harlem, 144 West 125th Street, New York, and the museum’s site gives its run as through September 6, 2026. In the same period, the museum is also presenting other on-site projects, including 'From Now: A Collection in Context', 'Through Motion and Repose: Expanding the Walls 2026' and long-term artist installations by David Hammons, Glenn Ligon and Houston E. Conwill.
