Published to coincide with the National Portrait Gallery exhibition, The Time is Always Now, opening February 2024. This hardcover catalogue explores Black figuration and portraiture as realized in the works of Amy Sherald, Jordan Casteel and other contemporary artists.
“There is never a time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment, the time is always now.”, wrote James Baldwin.
This catalogue includes three original essays by Bernardine Evaristo, Booker Prize-winning author; Esi Edugyan, Scotiabank Giller Prize winning novelist; and Dorothy Price, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art and Critical Race Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art. It also features a collection of texts from authors, poets and scholars reflecting on Black bodies and Black lives.
The Time is Always Now, curated by Ekow Eshun (former Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts), showcases the work of contemporary African diasporic artists including Michael Armitage, Lubaina Himid, Kerry James Marshall, Toyin Ojih Odutola and Barbara Walker, whose figures illuminate the richness and complexity of Black life.