Adam Pendleton's 'Who Is the Queen?' Imbues Abstraction with Political Weight

5 hours ago7 min read2 comments

Adam Pendleton's 'Who Is the Queen?' at Friedman Benda is a profound reconfiguration of the gallery into a charged, theatrical space. Moving beyond pure aesthetics, the exhibition stages a powerful collision of geometric abstraction with Black history and political thought.Pendleton, known for his 'Black Dada' framework, subverts the clean language of modernism, loading circles, lines, and squares with historical consequence. The monochromatic canvases, rendered in stark black, white, and gray, reject optical speed for a deliberate, meditative pace.This enforced slowness is a political stance against rapid consumption, demanding viewers sit with the weight of the works. That weight is both material—in the thick impasto and heavy silkscreened fragments from writers like Adrienne Kennedy—and ideological, questioning who has historically owned these 'universal' forms.Pendleton masterfully frames the gallery not as a neutral container but as an arena for a quiet, urgent debate, reframing modernism through the lens of Black radical theory. The show operates as a critical essay in physical form, cementing Friedman Benda as a vital destination for cutting-edge contemporary discourse.

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#Adam Pendleton

#Friedman Benda

#geometry

#art exhibition

#contemporary art

#gallery opening

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