Award
Titus Kaphar
2020 WSJ Magazine Innovator Award
On November 11, 2020, Titus Kaphar was honored at the 2020 WSJ Magazine Innovator Awards, which has been recognizing inspiring talents from a variety of cultural pursuits for a decade. The musician and producer Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean presented the Art Innovator award to Kaphar, whose work explores the limited representation of Black people in Western painting and whose multidisciplinary arts incubator, NXTHVN, breaks the mold for nonprofit organizations. In the past the red-carpet event has been held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, but this year, due to COVID-19 restrictions, it was filmed. To watch the ceremony, visit the WSJ Magazine’s YouTube channel.
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Titus Kaphar in his studio, New Haven, Connecticut, 2020. Artwork © Titus Kaphar
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Honor
Titus Kaphar
Brooklyn Artists Ball 2024
Titus Kaphar is the honoree of the 2024 Brooklyn Artists Ball, taking place on April 9 in New York. Kaphar—a Brooklyn Museum trustee and cofounder and president of the nonprofit arts hub NXTHVN—was selected for his innumerable contributions as both a trailblazing artist and a community-focused activist. The Artists Ball is the museum’s largest fundraiser, generating pivotal revenue in support of programming that spans special exhibitions and reimagined collection installations as well as educational programs for visitors of all ages.
Titus Kaphar. Photo: Sasha Arutyunova/The New York Times/Redux
Screening and Talk
Titus Kaphar
Derek Cianfrance
Friday, April 28, 2023, 7pm
Metrograph, New York
metrograph.com
Join Titus Kaphar and director Derek Cianfrance on the opening night of Titus Kaphar Selects, a film program curated by the artist as part of a series copresented by Gagosian and Metrograph. The evening will include screenings of Kaphar’s short films Shut Up and Paint, an Oscar-shortlisted work in which he looks to the medium of film in the face of an insatiable art market seeking to silence his activism, and I Hold Your Love, a New Yorker documentary that explores the joys and injustices of Black motherhood. Following the screenings, the pair will speak about their respective practices and work, including Cianfrance’s 2010 film Blue Valentine, which also features in the program.
Still from Shut Up and Paint (2022), directed by Titus Kaphar and Alex Mallis
Screening
Titus Kaphar Selects
April 28–May 11, 2023
Metrograph, New York
metrograph.com
Titus Kaphar has curated a selection of films as part of a series copresented by Gagosian and Metrograph. The program features seven films that have each served to validate feelings of joy, pain, fear, or sorrow for the artist, as well as two short films that he directed.
Kaphar explains, “Film is a uniquely powerful medium. Its ability to tap into our emotions is unlike anything else for me. This is not a top ten list. This is a decidedly subjective selection of films that, through their vulnerability and specificity, have made me feel less alone.”
Featured films include
The Babadook
Blue Valentine
Boyz n the Hood
Do the Right Thing
Drive My Car
I Hold Your Love
The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Moonlight
Shut Up and Paint
Still from Do the Right Thing (1989), directed by Spike Lee
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