On View February 13, 2025 - July 20, 2025

Curated by Katherine Simóne Reynolds and supported by a five-person curatorial cohort of advisors, it's a fine thing explores the rich and often overlooked landscape of the Black Midwest, including the Rust Belt. The exhibition will challenge conventional narratives and celebrate the resilience and creativity of Black Midwestern artists. 

it's a fine thing explores themes of erasure, community, and the complex relationship between Black Midwesterners and the land through a range of works, including painting, sculpture, photography, video, and performance. The exhibition draws works from the museum's extensive collection, reimagining works by Elizabeth Catlett, Kara Walker, Beauford Delaney, Betye Saar, and Sonya Clark as well as significant loans from renowned artists such as LaToya Ruby Frazier, Mitchell Squire, Helen LaFrance, and Reynolds herself. While this exhibition centers the Black Midwestern experience, it also acknowledges how those experiences resonate with a broader artistic dialogue about fugitivity, resilience, and the pursuit of freedom and incorporates the works of non-Black artists like Ana Mendieta, Philip Guston and Robert Wilson.

Reynolds’ curatorial approach is deeply rooted in poetry, choreography, and meditation, inviting viewers to contemplate the subtle nuances of the Black Midwestern experience through language. The show contextualizes words like Fugitivity (the strategies used to resist oppression) metaphorically applied to the preservation of Black history, and Keloidal, a term coined by Reynolds to describe the concept of over-healing and the persistence of trauma. 

Beyond the exhibition, the Stanley Museum of Art will be engaging in community outreach through a series of programs, including the NEA Big Read program which will feature a community-wide reading of Toni Morrison’s Beloved (launching on Martin Luther King Jr Day), film screenings, panel discussions, and workshops.

Captions 

Top right: Elizabeth Catlett, Mimi, 2007. Linoleum cut mounted on Iwami paper, 15 x 16 in. (38.1 x 40.64 cm). Leola N. Bergmann Print Fund 2013.5 

Left: Photograph from Patrobas Cassius Robinson Digital Collection featuring a scrapbook created by Patrobas Cassius Robinson, enrolled at the University of Iowa from 1923 to 1927, that offers a rare glimpse into African American student life at Iowa in the early 20th century. Image courtesy UI Special Collections.

Katherine Simóne Reynolds was supported by a five-person curatorial cohort of advisors: 

• Kemi Adeyemi, Associate Professor of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington and Founder and Director of The Black Embodiments Studio
• Angel Bat Dawid, Composer, Clarinetist, Pianist, DJ and Educator
• Ashley Howard, Assistant Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Iowa 
• Mpho Matsipa, Associate Professor and Co-Director of Spatial Justice, Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London
• Terrion L. Williamson, Associate Professor of Black Studies and Gender and Women's Studies and Director of Black Midwest Initiative, University of Illinois Chicago

it’s a fine thing is generously supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Additional funding was provided by the Members Special Exhibition Fund and Dr. John J. Tanja.