VOICES, an art exhibition in New York City that opened this week, features work from Black creatives with the hope of spreading awareness of the Black Lives Matter Movement. 

Curator Anwarii Musa opens the Chelsea exhibition at Studio 525 as appointment-only through September 8th. The exhibition features art from over ten artists that explores the Black experience in America and hosts two panels with art experts putting those works into dialogue.

“VOICES foregrounds the narratives that have encompassed Black beauty in America in the current era… [illustrating] the strength and luster we find in the Black body, the tenacity that our ancestors displayed when faced with the bounteous trauma of the past four previous centuries,” Musa said. 

The collection includes photographs, paintings and sculptures that place Black figures in moments of beauty, pain and protest. One piece from artist Marc Clennon shows protestors raising fists outside Trump Tower while another by Devin Allen documents a group of people carrying a casket. A painting by Collin Sekajugo places a Black figure in the current moment of the COVID-19 pandemic wearing a mask. 

Artist Natasha Roberts will also moderate a panel for ART SHE SAYS —  an online community raising voices of female artists —  and will feature input from Jenee-Daria Strand, Natasha Becker, Zachary Tye Richardson, Ché Morales, and Jeffrey Meris. For those who can’t make it to the physical space in Chelsea, there will also be a series of Instagram Live talks with Delphine Diallo, Latoya Hobbs, Phyllis Stephens and Nate Lewis.

The exhibition also acts as charity as funds raised will go towards ​ArtStart​ and ​the Black Artist Fund. Project co-lead from Studio 525 Elisabeth Johs said that VOICES comes at a time the surrounding community needs messages of hope.