Exploring Presence: African American Artists in the Upper South, identifies a succinct selection of prolific visionaries who create from and are informed by the liminal realms between northeastern art metropolises and the South. Featured artists include Schroeder Cherry, Linda Day Clark, Oletha DeVane, Espi Frazier, Aziza Claudia Gibson Hunter, Martha Jackson Jarvis, Ed Love, Tom Miller, Joyce J Scott, and Paula Whaley. Though most were not born or bred in Washington, D.C. or Baltimore, MD, they each found, grounded, educated, and affirmed themselves in the belly of Black enclaves situated at the border of the Mason Dixon line in a region colloquially known as Up’South or the Upper South. Exploring Presence reviews the projects, interventions, activations, and constructions that each artist engaged between 1970 and the contemporary moment. Contributing writers include; Dr. Leslie King Hammond, Dr. Lowery Stokes Sims, Charles Moore, Dr. Deborah Britt, Jermaine T. Bell, Martina Dodd, Sarah Stefana Smith, Deyane Moses, Maleke Glee, Monifa Asante Love, and Teri Henderson. Edited and curated by Angela N. Carroll.

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Exhibit description taken from the James E. Lewis Museum of Art website

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