TITUS KAPHAR: EXHIBITING FORGIVENESS

Gagosian is pleased to announce Exhibiting Forgiveness, an exhibition of new paintings by Titus Kaphar at the gallery in Beverly Hills.

September 13 – November 2, 2024

In addition to portraits, the Exhibiting Forgiveness paintings depict figures, façades of neighborhood houses, personal objects, and ephemera. These are emotionally and intellectually charged pieces. The paintings preceded the film; as Kaphar says, “they spring from the same personal, emotional and psychological well” that is the source for all his work.

Combining a mastery of oil painting techniques with application of heterogenous mediums and innovative methods, Kaphar challenges conventional representation to provoke deep contemplations of family, community, and memory.

Kaphar renders grief and loss, obscuring bodies, or removing them outright with knife-cut excisions. What remains is a testament to how we continue to live despite our wounds.

Flashback sequences directed by Kaphar physically incorporate the paintings of neighborhood views, moving them through on-screen space—a transitional device that conveys the protagonist’s state of mind as he comes to terms with his past. Together, the exhibited works reveal an expansion of Kaphar’s compositional and narrative strategies, exploring the ways in which humans find forgiveness and move forward.

The paintings capture people, places, and incidents from the past and present, images that signpost Exhibiting Forgiveness’s characters, symbolism, and plot.

“Exhibiting Forgiveness points at hope without diminishing the challenges of forgiveness.”
—Titus Kaphar