Hales are delighted to announce LJ Roberts’s first solo exhibition in New York City, Carry You With Me: Ten Years of Portraits at Pioneer Works, Brooklyn. Opening today and on view until November 28.
The 26 embroideries are the result of a long-term ongoing project — stitching laboriously by hand, each piece takes up to one year to create. The works depict friends, collaborators, and lovers, illustrating how politics, culture and identity manifest in both visible and subtle ways through encounters in daily life.
“The embroideries are a ten-year record of my friendships and relationships, the politics that marked the decade, the fun I had with friends, the everyday action and resistance that these people practice, those who influence and inspire me, the elders who have mentored me, people who have collaborated with me.” (Roberts)
The exhibition will open in tandem with the publication of a companion book, wherein each illustration is paired with an anecdotal passage written by Roberts. These texts reflect on their deeply personal encounters and companionships with the depicted subjects, speaking to shared moments that are both mundane and significant. The book, which takes its name from the exhibition, includes a foreword by Sur Rodney (Sur), essays by Carmen Hermo and Theodore (ted) Kerr, and a conversation between the artist, Tirza True Latimer, and TT Takemoto. Together, these contributions further contextualize the series within Roberts’s practice and the histories that it was borne out of.
LJ Roberts
Carry You With Me: Ten Years of Portraits
Pioneer Works
159 Pioneer Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231
10 September - 28 November 2021
For more information please visit the Pioneer Works website here.
