‘Noel W Anderson: Black Excellence’ on View at the Zuccaire Gallery June 29 through October 24

Noel W Anderson installing work for an exhibition in 2025 at the University at Albany. The large-scale tapestries will be part of 'Noel W Anderson: Black Excellence' at the Zuccaire Gallery. Photo by Patrick Dodson

"Noel W Anderson: Black Excellence" features tapestries, video and works on paper exploring themes of Black success, labor and performance. Anderson's stretched and suspended Jacquard tapestries depicting digitally altered archival and media images centered on Black identity, labor and performance will be exhibited alongside earlier works, archival materials and a video project that demonstrate the arc of his career.

Noel W Anderson, 'But Where?', 2022-23, picked and distressed stretched cotton tapestry, 105 x 156 inches. All images courtesy of the artist.

Underscoring Anderson's exploration of performance, the Zuccaire's expansive gallery will create an arena-like space for the exhibition to unfold, offering vantage points to experience his work from above and below, compelling the viewer to reflect on their role as participant, observer or witness. Two large-scale tapestries will be suspended in the center of the gallery from its 24-foot-high ceilings. These tapestries will hover over viewers on the first floor and will also be seen by looking down through the windows from the second-floor hallway of the Staller Center.

'We Give 'Em Reverend Brown,' 2023, discharge and dye on distressed stretched cotton tapestry, 110 x 75 inches

Anderson's suspended tapestries pay homage to the canvases of American painter Sam Gilliam (1933-2022), while other tapestries are stretched like paintings. In both modes of presentation, "The tapestry is an open and expansive (cotton)field of possibility" for Anderson, who draws on the medium's rich history from its privileged status as a Medieval art form to its 19th-century mechanical production by Joseph Marie Jacquard (1752-1834).

The exhibition will be on display from June 29 through October 24. Admission is free.

June 29-August 18 The Zuccaire Gallery is open by appointment. To schedule a visit, please email [email protected].

Special Opening Hours
Monday, June 29, 11 am to 3 pm
Guided exhibition tours at 11:15 am and 1:30 pm

Opening Reception: Saturday, July 18
Artist & Filmmaker Talk: 5 pm to 6 pm; reception: 6 pm to 7 pm
Gallery open 12 pm to 9:30 pm

July 16-25: Stony Brook Film Festival Hours
The gallery will be open evenings of the Stony Brook Film Festival, plus Saturday, July 18, from 12 pm to 9:30pm. No appointment needed.

For more information, please call the Zuccaire Gallery at (631) 632-7240 or email [email protected].