Rotimi Fani-Kayode | Edges of Ailey | Whitney Museum of American Art

Rotimi Fani-Kayode is included in Edges of Ailey at the Whitney Museum of American Art, through 9 February 2025. 

 

Edges of Ailey is the first large-scale museum exhibition to celebrate the life, dances, influences, and enduring legacy of visionary artist and choreographer Alvin Ailey (b. 1931, Rogers, Texas; d. 1989, New York, New York). This dynamic showcase-described as an "extravaganza" by curator Adrienne Edwards-brings together visual art, live performance, music, a range of archival materials, and a multi-screen video installation drawn from recordings of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) repertory to explore the full range of Ailey's personal and creative life.  

 

Presented at the Museum in two parts, Edges of Ailey consists of an immersive exhibition in the Museum's 18,000 square-foot fifth-floor galleries-featuring works by more than eighty artists and revelatory archival material-and an ambitious suite of performances in the Museum's third-floor theater, including AILEY in residence for one week each month during the exhibition. 

 

Sweeping holdings of rarely seen archives, including performance footage, recorded interviews, notebooks, letters, poems, short stories, choreographic notes, drawings, and performance programs and posters gathered from Ailey's archives and others forge a vital throughline in the gallery.