In her MFA thesis exhibition, Power & Desire, Alexis C. McDonald uses installation, sculpture, video, and found materials to revisit the ways black women have utilized Hip-Hop for pleasure, visibility, agency, and capital. From their lyrical verses of personal and sexual empowerment to their features on the magazine covers of KING (2002-2013), black women have reclaimed and reoriented perceptions of themselves on their own terms.

Heavily influenced by the self-proclaimed Hip-Hop feminist Dr. Joan Morgan and her novel When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost, the exhibition invites its viewers to consider the intersections between black women and Hip-Hop feminism that is not afraid to “fuck with the grays.” In this exhibition, McDonald embodies and immortalizes black women and their politics to uncover their contributions as shapers of culture within Hip-Hop, specifically, and the world at large.

Exhibition on view March 2 - 4, 2020
Gallery hours: Mon-Wed, 11 am - 5 pm