The Studio Museum in Harlem Revisits the “F” Series Through a New Generation

Reopened last year following a seven-year renovation, the Studio Museum in Harlem presents “Fade,” the sixth edition of its landmark “F” exhibition series, on view through September 6th. The exhibition joins a lineage of influential shows that began with “Freestyle” (2001), followed by “Frequency” (2005–06), “Flow” (2008), “Fore” (2012–13), and “Fictions” (2017–18).

Originally conceived by Thelma Golden and Christine Y. Kim in 2001, “Freestyle” was never expected to become a defining cultural touchstone or spark an ongoing exhibition series. This latest iteration is organized by Adria Gunter, Assistant Curator; Yelena Keller, Associate Curator; Jayson Overby Jr., Assistant Curator; Kiki Teshome, Curatorial Assistant; and Habiba Hopson, former Senior Curatorial Assistant.

A New Chapter for the “F” Series

Each edition of the “F” series responds to the social tensions and emotional realities of its moment, reflecting what both artists and audiences are grappling with in real time. For “Fade,“ the curators traveled across the country, developing relationships with artists by visiting studios and engaging directly with their practices rather than relying solely on digital correspondence. By seeking out emerging artists working outside traditional art capitals, they uncovered perspectives that may have otherwise gone unseen.

This process fostered a deeper level of collaboration between artists and curators. Beyond emails and institutional exchanges, the exhibition was shaped through interpersonal trust and a genuine understanding of one another’s creative practices. With five co-curators involved, the team was able to reach a wider range of artists and communities than would have otherwise been possible.

Artists featured in the exhibition include Turiya Adkins, Harlan Bozeman, Kiah Celeste, Antonio Darden, Emmanuel Louisnord Desir, Jesús Hilario-Reyes, Y. Malik Jalal, Lola Ayisha Ogbara, Andina Marie Osorio, Utē Petit, Taj Poscé, Amina Ross, Coumba Samba, Shani Strand, Malaika Temba, Chiffon Thomas, and London Pierre Williams.

Collaboration as Curatorial Practice

Natasha Logan, Chief Program Officer, explains that “the opportunity to send our curators around the nation to meet artists that are working outside of New York or outside of major cities is really timely and important. Looking at the state of our nation and thinking about how that translates into the work that artists are making, it felt urgent to revisit this as a series of exhibitions.”

The future of the “F” series depends on reading communities and understanding the emotions they are collectively experiencing. “Fade” brings forward feelings that often remain unspoken, exploring emotional and societal tensions that resist easy articulation.

“The process has allowed us all to build a level of trust with each other.”

–Jayson Overby Jr.

Jayson Overby Jr., Assistant Curator, says “the most exciting part about this process has been the growth of all of these relationships.” He adds that “the process has allowed us all to build a level of trust with each other, working with these artists and working with us curators. Many of them created brand new work.”

That sense of trust is embedded throughout the exhibition. Artists confront deeply personal and collective emotions, creating artworks that respond to external societal pressures while navigating intimacy, grief, memory, and identity. As Overby notes, “We would support them and be there as they’re thinking about changes in their practice or in their process. It has been joyful to arrive at this moment where they get to see the works in person for the first time.”

Exploring Memory, Resistance, and the In-Between

Featuring newly commissioned and loaned works by emerging Black artists, “Fade” transforms the museum’s light-filled fourth-floor gallery into a collective meditation on spirituality, non-linear concepts of time, refuge, land, grief, and the surreal. Through sculpture, tapestry, painting, and installation, the exhibition explores spaces of resistance and transformation.

The title itself carries multiple meanings, referencing cinema, haircuts, and basketball moves simultaneously. “Fade” suggests both disappearance and emergence, allowing artists to revisit history through abstract and deeply personal forms. Despite its connection to the series’ legacy, the exhibition feels entirely contemporary.

Artists Transforming Space and Material

One of the exhibition’s strongest elements is its use of architectural space, particularly corners, which several artists transform into immersive extensions of their work. Turiya Adkins’s Admittance of Guilt, part of a larger work exploring flight and free fall, unfolds across a corner through loose gestural marks that evoke fragmented bodies in motion. Similarly, Andina Marie Osorio’s Untitled (ven sin nombre) features silver gelatin prints, envelopes, and prints beneath a patterned steel structure that wraps directly into the gallery’s corner architecture.

Taj Poscé’s Cosmic Shift consists of six wood panels layered with acrylic, concrete, tar, and plastic. Created separately, each panel reflects a different approach to his painting practice, balancing restriction and freedom while tracing organic and industrial systems. Upon closer inspection, tree trunks and grid-like structures emerge throughout the composition, grounding the work in both the natural and constructed worlds. A shooting star appearing in a single panel becomes a symbol of ambition and momentum.

Malaika Temba’s Kazi Zetu is a woven tapestry composed of cotton, rayon, acrylic paint, and embroidery depicting scenes of everyday life in Tanzania. Layering paint and silkscreen techniques onto textile surfaces, the work juxtaposes industrial references with tactile intimacy. Meanwhile, Lola Ayisha Ogbara’s “Forget Me Knot” series references the kola nut, a seed native to West Africa used in rituals of welcoming, blessing, and ancestral offering. The sculptures feature grooves that echo the patterned keloid scars associated with African scarification traditions, historically viewed as markers of beauty. Antonio Darden, meanwhile, draws from popular culture alongside his Caribbean and Southern roots to explore themes of loss, intimacy, and Black interiority.

From ancestral memory to intimate loss, no subject feels too large or too personal within “Fade”. Like the series itself, the exhibition follows a non-linear trajectory, reemerging precisely when artists and audiences are ready for it. As Thelma Golden reflects, some of the participating artists and co-curators were either not alive or too young to experience the original exhibitions firsthand, yet the cultural impact of the series helped create pathways that shaped their practices regardless.