Rashaad Newsome: THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO SEE

Rashaad Newsome: THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO SEE spotlights multimedia artist Rashaad Newsome’s work about the dance form known as Vogue. For over a decade, Newsome has worked with members of the Vogue community, which developed in New York City’s queer ballroom scene of the 1970s. With a particular interest in critiquing the popular appropriation of Vogue in the early 1990s, and with the aim to bring these queer communities of color from the Vogue scene into the institutional space, Newsome creates work that reframes how performers are represented, and highlights their enormous talent for style and bodily movement.

The title of the exhibition draws from an emcee’s refrain, while simultaneously pointing to the desire of wanting queer bodies of color represented within the institutional space. Featuring video and collage works made between 2008 to 2014, THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO SEE explores the beauty, agency and complexities of Vogue and performance art.

Exhibition overview from the Studio Museum website