Hot Takes is CULTURED's weekly poll that asks leaders across cultural spaces for their two cents on trending topics. Want to share your own? Send your rants to CULTURED by emailing digital [at] culturedmag.com or join the conversation on Instagram and Twitter.  

By mirroring the same racism and discrimination that permeates the society it reflects, the art world has historically been a closed system of inequality—especially for Black artists. Through recent institutional and intentional changes, today's creative industries have been attempting to reckon with a lifetime of injustice by propelling and supporting Black and Brown creatives. There is no denying the significant effect and potential for greater oportunities made by these ideological advancements, and it would be reductive to say race can be untethered from one's existence. However, does a societal need to categorize to understand inform or hinder expression? As the artist Glenn Ligon once posed: "Why do many shows with works by colored people (and rarely whites) have titles that include 'race' and 'identity?' Who is my work for and what do different audiences demand of it?"

Ferrari Sheppard
Although he works across many mediums, Ferrari Sheppard might be most known for his vibrant paintings, which combine personal figurativism with emotional abstraction.

Says Sheppard: "Despite recognizing efforts to correct centuries of institutionalized racism and discrimination in the art world, I find myself frustrated by mainstream society’s eagerness to neatly pack everything I produce into so-called 'Black identity.' Of course, I am proud to be African and much of my work centers my experience, but I am not one-dimensional. If the first thing you think when you encounter my work is Black people, you might want to examine the less than obvious reasons why. Furthermore, with a world as diverse as ours, there shouldn’t be a default version of a human, but unfortunately, there is. And that default has traditionally been white."

Hannah Traore

Just past the one-year mark, Hannah Traore's eponymous New York gallery has become an important space for independent creatives across fashion and art. This week​,​ Traore will debut a show in collaboration with Helmut Lang, curated by ​Antwaun ​Sargent​.​

Says Traore: "This is an issue that is very close to my heart. I think that the push for equality has also pushed an already unfair expectation [upon] Black artists. You have to ask yourself, are white artists being asked to create a certain type of work, or express their identity in the same way that Black artists are expected to? When the desire for equality is truly genuine and not performative or predatory, Black artists will be celebrated for the quality of their work no matter what they are depicting."

Ludovic Nkoth
Cameroonian painter and CULTURED 2023 Young Artist Ludovic Nkoth paints figures in foreign spaces. The New Yorker is currently in Paris for a 10-month residency at L’Académie des Beaux-Arts.

Say Nkoth: "This is a question I’ve wrestled with in the past, mainly due to societal pressures as a Black creative. I believe art by an artist of color does not always need to be centered around race or identity simply because the artist's race/identity will always be folded within their practice, no matter what works they decide to make. The artist's hand is inherently present—identity doesn't exist in a vacuum. Our industry is very quick to minimize the subjecthood of works made by artists of color by categorizing our practices under race, which sometimes could miss the bigger picture or lack nuanced criticality. While we all appreciate the representational support and recognition from institutions, it's important to not pigeon-hole the works of artists of color."

Dominique Clayton
Arts manager, consultant, and gallerist Dominique Clayton is a contributing editor for CULTURED. 

Says Clayton: "When we think of jazz music and hip-hop, which are organically Black, there has been no need to specify 'Black hip-hop artist' or 'Black jazz musician.' It's already implied. Now, [with the globalization of that industry], you have to specify differences like 'white rapper' or 'Korean R&B.' It's a bit more complicated in the art world, since the history of fine art has been rooted in colonization and gatekeeping. Because art has historically excluded marginalized groups, there's been this period of reclamation. So no, Black artists don't have to or shouldn't have to make art that mirrors their identity and experience, but many often do as part of this need to reclaim a position in the history and future of art. Glen's question should really be, 'Why has the art world erased and excluded Black artists from its history and institutions?'"

Jameel Mohammed
Jameel Mohammed is an artist and founder of Khiry, a luxury brand that focuses on Afrofuturist jewelry.

Says Mohammed: "Black artists make work that's not 'about' race all the time. I think the question is and should be: are white-led institutions willing to invest sustainably in Black narratives that do not allow them a veneer of racial progressivism? Racialized stories, themes, and interpretations of otherwise not racially-specific work lend most obviously to this incentive structure, one led by and designed to primarily serve non-Black capital interests. Black artists are making work amidst a larger set of structures, which they are not naive to, do not control, did not design, and are not the primary beneficiaries of—historically or now. Then, the question seems most appropriately posed to those who propagate, profit from, and consume Black cultural ideas; are you willing to approach the work of Black artists through a lens untinged by racial power dynamics?"

Essence Harden
In addition to contributing to CULTURED, Essence Harden is a visual arts curator at the California African American Museum and an independent arts writer. 

Says Harden: "There are two threads I want to consider: one is the force of the market, and the other is the expanse of Blackness. The market, as something forwarded between institutions (galleries, museums, collectors, etc.), dictates particular frameworks for considering Blackness as a site of value. Thus, exhibitions and individuals find use in marketing something as 'Black' as a means to manufacture worth. That value allows for artists, along with institutions, to [offer] their work and themselves economic gains and success. The other thread is that being Black and an artist does not need divorcing, as Blackness is not something that must be escaped from. Exhibitions and individual artists can and do consider a world wherein Blackness is the assumed/already known position and work out of that framework, never naming 'Black,' but operating within a world that is Black. As Toni Morrison said, Blackness is not a limit of imagination, rather it is an expanse. Does work by Black artists need to be framed with the moniker 'Black'? No. But Black people and Blackness are entangled in a world of reductionist chokeholds, and consistently mark pathways to gain moments of autonomy and freedom."

Philip-Daniel Ducasse
Born in Quebec, Canada and raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti Brooklyn-based photographer and CULTURED contributor Philip-Daniel Ducasse's practice is heavily inspired by his experience as an immigrant. 

Says Ducasse: “To respond to part of Glenn Ligon’s comment, words like that show up in connection with Black artists largely to help white audiences understand how to relate to the work they’re seeing—the implication being that, without the context of the work being 'about' race and identity, those audiences would have a harder time understanding how to relate. To me, that represents a limitation. It’s great that there’s an intentional effort to center Black artists in the cultural mainstream now, and it makes sense that the effort focuses more on work that shows up as being explicitly about race—or, at least, that the work is framed that way. But the Black experience is so much more varied than race. Seeing, and expecting to see, Black people and our art only in the context of race ignores the nuance of our identity. Art is about exploration, not limitations, nor expectations. Black art, then—like art produced by any other group—can be anything it wants to be. That’s the point of art. Of course, my work is inevitably shaped by my experience as a Black person. So to a certain extent, my work will always be 'about' being Black. But no more or less so than white artists’ work is inevitably a reflection of their being white. The only difference is where culture puts its critical focus. So personally, I don’t feel the need to perpetuate this imbalance when it comes to the way I think about my own work. My art is for everyone, for anyone who finds liking to it. It’s informed by my experience, so that means it’s often for people who look like me; but it’s also for people who share all the other things that I am, regardless of who they are—it’s for people who are curious like me, for people who push boundaries, for people who share aesthetic tastes. My lens doesn’t discriminate, and I like to make work that goes 'beyond' Blackness; I think it’s important to be able to explore, as long as the intent is sensitive and genuine. We learn and grow through curiosity, so it’s counterproductive for both artist and audience to be boxed into a set artistic category. It’s true that the reactions to my work by people who look like me may differ from those of people who don’t, but that’s one of the goals of art; it’s meant to provoke different things in different people. It’s also meant to make us reflect on who we are as individuals, and what it means to be human. I aspire to make art that has that power; I want to participate in a cultural conversation in which Black art and Black artists are recognized for their contributions to our collective understanding of human identity." 

Dr. V. Joy Simmons
Radiologist Dr. V. Joy Simmons started her collecting journey with the masters—Jacob Lawrence, specifically. Decades later, her Ladera Heights home, which she calls "Joy's House," spans works from Mark Bradford and Mickalene Thomas to Diedrick Brackens, Calida Rawles, and Deborah Roberts.

Says Simmons: "Black art does not always need to be explicitly about race. People need to appreciate that Black artists think conceptually, abstractly, and figuratively. However, to fully understand an artist and her/his work in totality, it is important to acknowledge their racial and cultural background. As a collector of work by Black people for over 40 years, it is important for me to lend out work to institutions of all sizes in hopes that these artists' work will reach the biggest and brightest stages that they deserve to be in." 

Shinique Smith
While her work has been shown across prestigious institutions and biennials including LACMA, the National Portrait Gallery, and MOMA PS1, Shinique Smith, who combines calligraphy and collage in her large, abstract paintings, has a long history of creating landmark public works that layer spirituality with poetry and cultural topics.

Says Smith: “Through my work in abstraction, I convey my spirit, the actions of my body, and the myriad of ideas and experiences I have as both an artist and Black woman. Our art does not need to be about racial identity, nor shown in culturally-specific contexts, to be Black. The nature of the Black experience is broad and unlimited, and so are our expressions. Therefore, our work deserves to be exhibited in a wide range of contexts."

Phillip Collins
Phillip Collins is the founder and curator of Good Black Art, which helps promising Black talent from around the world navigate the art industry.

Says Collins: "Without influence from the market, I would like to ask what do we as Black people want our art to reflect? We are a people with a range of emotions, experiences and environments. As a global community, we have an opportunity to define our own narratives and celebrate the beauty of our nuance."