Pratt Manhattan Gallery’s latest exhibition, In Our Time: Eleven Artists + W.E.B. Du Bois, is a group show that brings together a diverse roster of leading contemporary artists, from Derrick Adams to Carrie Mae Weems to Theaster Gates. The art on view responds to the work of pioneering sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois.
Curated by Loretta Yarlow, the exhibition is the second in a series and marks a timely re-engagement with Du Bois’s sweeping intellectual contributions to civil rights, history, sociology, art, and activism. Yarlow first organized Du Bois In Our Time in 2013 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst – home to the W.E.B. Du Bois Center and its extensive archive. Now, over a decade later, In Our Time revisits and expands on its original iteration for a new generation shaped by a markedly changed sociopolitical landscape.
“The artists featured here engage Du Bois not as a historical figure of the past, but as a radical thinker whose voice continues to resonate urgently and prophetically in today’s struggles for justice, truth, and visibility,” said Yarlow. “With the Pratt Manhattan Gallery’s central prominence to New York City’s contemporary art scene, the exhibition is able to bring together a range of works that reflect both what has changed over the past decade as well as the profound continuities that still shape our social and political realities, demonstrating how Du Bois’s vision remains a call to action.”
From urgent critiques of racial injustice and degradation of nature to poetic meditations on identity, memory, and historical erasure, the works on view span photography, painting, sculpture, video, installations, and text-based interventions. The 11 participating artists — each a critical voice in contemporary art — offer individual and collective interpretations of Du Bois’s writings, activism, and enduring call to action, drawing directly from his explorations of double consciousness, data visualizations on Black progress, and advocacy for women’s suffrage and environmental preservation.
The full list of artists includes: Angel Abreu/Studio K.O.S., Derrick Adams, Radcliffe Bailey, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Theaster Gates, Jenny Holzer, Julie Mehretu, Ann Messner, Jefferson Pinder, Mickalene Thomas, and Carrie Mae Weems.
In Our Time: Eleven Artists + W.E.B. Du Bois will be on view at Pratt Manhattan Gallery from September 26 to December 20, 2025, with a public opening reception for the exhibition on Thursday, September 25, from 6–8pm.
To learn more, visit pratt.edu.
