Arthur Jafa has curated a new exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) as part of the museum's ongoing Artist's Choice series. Titled "Less Is Morbid," the show runs through July 5 and features over 80 objects selected from MoMA's collection. Jafa, an artist and filmmaker known for his emotionally charged collages and installations, brings together works by figures such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cy Twombly, Lygia Clark, Roy DeCarava, Piet Mondrian, and Lutisha Pettway. The exhibition challenges binary oppositions like minimalist/maximalist and sparse/dense, and critiques the historical hierarchies that have governed art institutions.
The exhibition matters because it directly confronts the legacy of modernist aesthetics—epitomized by Mies van der Rohe's "less is more"—which Jafa argues has been used to marginalize Black, queer, and feminine forms of expression as excessive or chaotic. By juxtaposing works across time, culture, and style, Jafa proposes coexistence over exclusion, reframing the museum's own collection as a site for rethinking institutional values. The show also continues MoMA's Artist's Choice series, which gives contemporary artists curatorial agency, and is accompanied by a film series and public programs.