Titus Kaphar, "The Jerome Project (Asphalt and Chalk) XII"

TITUS KAPHAR
Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1976
Currently lives and works between New York and Connecticut

The Jerome Project (Asphalt and Chalk) XII*
2015
Chalk on asphalt paper

Recent work by New York-based artist Titus Kaphar addresses the human and civil rights crisis currently underway in the United States criminal justice system. His “Asphalt and Chalk” works respond, in particular, to the persistent, deadly assault by law enforcement on unarmed black men in America.

This monumental drawing mourns the premature deaths of Sean Bell (1983–2006), Michael Brown (1996–2014), and Eric Garner (1970–2014). Kaphar sketches headshots of these young men in white chalk, layering one on top of the other on a ground of black asphalt paper. The resulting image appears to flicker between individual and collective portrait, challenging the viewer’s capacity, and willingness, to perceive these men as singular beings beyond any demographic group.

Student Committee Selection 2014–2015
Contemporary Art Purchasing Program
The Adele H. Stamp Student Union—Center for Campus Life

*The artist changed the title of this artwork to Brown, Bell, Garner after the conclusion of the New Arrivals 2015 exhibition.