Fridman Gallery is honored to announce A Billion, Brilliant Points of Unity, a group exhibition curated by Maty Sall.

The belief that different cultures are not separate but rather inherently interconnected, sharing past and present influences, is generally known as polyculturalism.

And, in as much as it is a belief, it is also an observation of perpetual flux that points us towards an obvious truth: human beings are engaged in an eternal process of cultural exchange. Our history is one of mutual influence, a constant migration and exchange of people, ideas, and objects.

The current popular understanding of how cultures interact has morphed into a simplified notion of cultural exchange as a system of top-down oppression that frames non-Western people and their art as “source material.” This both denies non-Western people the dignity of being influential and casts the Western world into the role of “observer” while framing non-Westerners as, simply, the “observed.”

Moreover, it could not be further from the historical truth: a Hellenistic influence on Indian art and architecture is documented from the 4th century BC onwards. It was just as 17th century Chinese potters began to emulate Ottoman and Safavid ceramic designs that 17th century Europe developed a fascination with Chinoiserie. The distinct stylistic qualities of Byzantine art reveal centuries’ of influence from North and East Africa on the Eastern Mediterranean. And, famously, when seeking to reinvent the human figure Cubism looked straight towards African art.

Nearly a quarter of the way through the twenty-first century, this cross-pollination has only intensified. In all instances, the works featured in A Billion, Brilliant Points of Unity push back against a deterministic vision of human identity centered on division and against fatalistic notions of difference. As the contemporary world reorients itself around new forms of material production, new channels of trade, and increasingly rapid means of communication, for those who wish to break new ground, abundant sources of inspiration come from all directions.

Jamaican-born American painter David Smalling is inspired by Dutch old masters, whose epic style of painting yields itself perfectly to his autobiographical narrative practice, allowing him to explore insecurities and personal relationships.

At once, French-Algerian photographer Maya Ines Touam takes stylistic cues from golden age Dutch nature mortes (still-lifes), focusing on artifacts from all over Africa as her subject-matter. Through her use of specific objects and compositions, Touam pays homage to overlooked stories of migrations and important societal contributions by African women.

Sahana Ramakrishnan, a Mumbai-born, Singapore-raised, and New Jersey based mixed-media artist, dives into mythology from all over the world. By looking deep into origin stories, she is able to draw out universal connections between our histories and our contemporary societal ills, uniting past and present through the retelling of age-old tales.

Rakajoo, a Franco-Senegalese painter who reinvents inner city Paris and its inhabitants by bending and breaking pictorial space, looks to manga and anime—themselves Japan’s response to the post-war influx of American cartoons and comics—as he narrates a childhood spent in the 18th arrondissement in the 90s. His recent interest in video work has led to a foray into multimedia paintings, through which he dives into immigrants’ influence on French culture.

Yelaine Rodriguez’s performance and photography practice is situated within the symbolic language of African diasporic (or Afro-Syncretic) religions like Santeria, Las 21 Divisiones and Vodou. By mining the depths of these esoteric spiritual practices, she deftly makes connections between the visual language of Afro-Caribbean cultures with that of traditional African religions, such as Yoruba. Rodriguez channels Caribbean spirituality and its polycultural origins to produce emotionally resonant images. Her practice is a careful, meditative exploration on African, Indigenous American, and Catholic influences in the
Americas.

As information travels faster and faster, polyculturalism hints at what the future holds—we are not moving towards a single, homogenous culture, but towards a billion, brilliant points of unity. We are accelerating towards immaculate multiplicity brimming with potential and, time and time again, it is artists who find themselves on the vanguard of this eternal cultural exchange.

A Billion, Brilliant Points of Unity features works by Hilary Balu, Kokou Ferdinand Makouvia, Laurena Finéus, Ambrose Rhapsody Murray, Terrence Musekiwa, Adjani Okpu-Egbe, Rakajoo, Sahana Ramakrishnan, Yelaine Rodriguez, David Smalling, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Malaika Temba, Maya Ines Touam, Saya Woolfalk.

Text by Grace Nkem. Edited by Maty Sall.