Jill Dawsey, curatorial associate, painting and sculpture, SFMOMA
Conceptual art, in which ideas take precedence over material forms, offered artists of the 1960s and 1970s a critical framework for exploring social issues. Alienated by the mainstream canon, African American artists such as Adrian Piper employed conceptual strategies to analyze race. Dawsey explores their legacy in the work of younger artists such as Edgar Arceneaux, for whom race is but one element in a broader constellation of conceptual concerns.