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Exhibition explores the intertextual relationship between the writings of poet and activist Essex Hemphill and contemporary visual art.
The Phillips Collection presents Essex Hemphill: Take care of your blessings, the first exhibition to chart the interdisciplinary relationship between poet, writer, and activist Essex Hemphill (1957–1995) and contemporary visual art. Take care of your blessings highlights Hemphill’s influential relationships with visual artists who, like him, created genre-defying works that explore race, culture, community, gender, love, sexuality, and HIV/AIDS. While Hemphill died of AIDS-related illness at just 38, his work persists, reflected in visual dialogues with his contemporaries and inheritors.
Raised in Washington, DC, Essex Hemphill emerged as a vital and dynamic voice of the DC arts scene in the 1980s and 1990s. His poetry—raw, politically charged, and deeply personal—challenged societal norms and bridged the worlds of literature and visual art. His influence endures through the work of his friends and collaborators, such as Sir Isaac Julien, Joyce Wellman, and Lyle Ashton Harris as well as the work of a generation of younger artists including Diedrick Brackens, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, and Clifford Prince King, who have found inspiration in Hemphill’s artistic and political vision.
Image: Isaac Julien, Pas de Deux with Roses (Looking for Langston Vintage Series), 1989/2016, Ilford classic silver gelatin fine art paper, mounted on aluminum and framed, 22 7/8 x 29 3/8 in., Courtesy of Jessica Silverman Gallery.
