The Studio Museum in Harlem has opened 'Fade,' the sixth installment of its influential 'F' series, featuring 17 emerging Black and Afro-Latinx artists. The exhibition includes works such as London Pierre Williams's large-scale oil painting 'The Stage: He that leaves me blue, a dream (2026)' and Antonio Darden's 'Untitled (Reclining Figure) (2025),' among others. Curated to feel like an unfolding conversation rather than a traditional group show, 'Fade' explores themes of ancestry, spirituality, grief, and transformation, with sculptures, paintings, and installations that hover between memory and dream.
The 'F' series has long been a platform for emerging artists of color, and this edition marks the first in the museum's new purpose-built home, which opened in November 2025. By prioritizing intimacy and introspection over spectacle, 'Fade' offers a restrained counterpoint to larger contemporary exhibitions tackling similar themes, such as 'Beyond the Manosphere' at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. The show's willingness to hold ambiguity and resist neat conclusions underscores the Studio Museum's continued role in nurturing underrepresented voices and shaping dialogues around identity and history in contemporary art.