Culture

Two versions of herself seated together, connected by an artery - one with a whole heart, one with a severed one. Identity as the negotiation between the self you present and the self that keeps bleeding.

The same face in different colors, endlessly repeated. Identity as surface and performance. The question underneath: if the mask is always on, what is the face it covers?

Jean-Michel Basquiat moving from graffiti tags to gallery walls without changing his essential vocabulary - crowns, anatomy, brand logos crossed out. Identity as refusal to code-switch for the institutions that want to collect you.

A Black president painted in the tradition of official portraits, surrounded by flowers from Kenya, Hawaii, and Chicago. Identity as the reclamation of a form never designed to include you - and its transformation into something that can.