Tales of Migration by Seventy-Five Artists

Adrian Paci, Centro di permanenza temporanea (Temporary Detention Center) (still), 2007, Video, color, sound; 4:32 min. Courtesy of the artist and Kaufmann Repetto, Milan/New York

Dorothea Lange, I Am an American, 1942, Gelatin silver print, Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection

Griselda San Martin, The Wall, 2015–16, Digital inkjet print, 20 1/2 x 16 1/2 in., Courtesy of the artist

Wolfgang Tillmans, Lampedusa, 2008, Inkjet print on paper and clips, 24 x 20 in. © Wolfgang Tillmans, Courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner, Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne, and Maureen Paley, London

Jack Delano, Group of Florida migrants on their way to Cranberry, New Jersey, to pick potatoes. Near Shawboro, North Carolina, 1940, Photograph, Farm Security Administration, Office of War Information Photograph Collection, Library of Congress

Paulo Nazareth, Untitled (from the series Noticias de América (News from the Americas)), 2011/12, photo print on cotton paper, 7 x 9 1/2 in. Courtesy of Paulo Nazareth, Galleria Franco Noero, Turin and Mendes Wood DM

John Akomfrah, Vertigo Sea, 2015, Three channel HD color video installation, 7.1 sound, 48:30 min. © Smoking Dogs Films; Courtesy of Lisson Gallery

Francis Alÿs in collaboration with Julien Devaux, Felix Blume, Ivan Boccara, Abbas Benheim, Fundación Montenmedio Arte, and children of Tangier and Tarifa, Don't Cross the Bridge Before You Get to the River (Strait of Gibraltar, Morocco-Spain) (still), 2008, Video installation, color, sound, 7 min. © Francis Alÿs. Courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner

The Warmth of Other Suns: Stories of Global Displacement features 75 historical and contemporary artists whose work poses urgent questions around the experiences and perceptions of migration and the current global refugee crisis.

Presented by The Phillips Collection, the exhibition opens to the public on June 22, however, on June 20, The Phillips Collection is offering free admission in honor of World Refugee Day.

“Through installations, videos, paintings, and photographs, The Warmth of Other Suns explores both real and imaginary geographies, reconstructing personal and collective tales of migration,” states the press release. The exhibition brings together a multitude of international voices and exposes the universality of migration.

Documentary photography plays a prominent role in the exhibition. Historical images range from Lewis Hine and Augustus Sherman’s photographs of immigrants at Ellis Island to work by Dorothea Lange and Alfred Stieglitz. Contemporary photojournalists documenting current migrations such as Guillermo Arias, Griselda San Martin, Hrair Sarkissian, and John Moore are included as well. Other photographers with work displayed are Jack Delano, Paulo Nazareth, Henk Wildschut, Mario Tama, Wolfgang Tillmans, Xaviera Simmons and Yto Barrada.

Artists working with video include Francis Alys, John Akomfrah and Adrian Paci.

Borrowing a line from author Richard Wright (1908–1960), and sharing its title with Isabel Wilkerson’s award-winning book on the Great Migration, The Warmth of Other Suns is anchored by a critical reference to the decades-long exodus of over six million African-Americans from the brutality and discrimination that ruled the American South.

The Warmth of Other Suns
The Phillips Collection
Curated by Massimiliano Gioni and Natalie Bell in partnership with the New Museum
June 22 – September 22, 2019
Free admission June 20 in honor of World Refugee Day