Exhibition - Terence Nance: Swarm

This spring, BlackStar Projects and Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania (ICA) present Terence Nance: Swarm, the first solo museum exhibition dedicated to the genre-defying and innovative practice of Terence Nance. Curated by Maori Karmael Holmes and on view from March 10 through July 9, 2023, Terence Nance: Swarm highlights Nance’s experimentation in film, television, sound, and performance through the presentation of six large-scale, multi-channel videos and installations that the artist has reimagined specifically for the exhibition.

As a filmmaker, writer, actor, and musician, Nance brings an interdisciplinary approach to his practice, offering unexpected and alternative paths for creating work that layers video, sound, printed matter, and live performance in contemporary environments. He first gained national recognition for his semi-animated feature film, An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012. He also attended the first edition of the BlackStar Film Festival in 2012, which Holmes, the exhibition's curator and BlackStar's chief executive and artistic officer, founded that year. He debuted another seminal work, Random Acts of Flyness, at the BlackStar Film Festival in 2018. The Peabody Award-winning HBO series examines contemporary Black life in America, and it returned for a second season on HBO this past December.

Nance draws much of his influence from the communities in which he creates work, including his birth city, Dallas, his current home, Baltimore, and Brooklyn. His career emerged in the wake of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s; its enduring creative lineage and kinship reveals itself in the work of Nance, which imagines a future that incorporates Black needs, desires, and spirit. The exhibition's title, Swarm, refers to a Brooklyn-based group of artists with whom he built a community in the early to mid-2000s. Holmes further describes this community in the exhibition catalog, writing: "Terence thrives in community, and I felt it was important to place that ethos at the forefront of this show. I'd read about and heard him speak about "The Swarm" in the early to mid-aughts often; in a 2019 interview with Simran Hans, Terence defines this as "Black or Black-adjacent people who find themselves in fractal, interlocking social networks in different cities."

Stated by Zoe Ryan, Daniel W. Dietrich, II Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, "Storytelling and ritual is at the heart of Terence's work, which expands across media and genres. We are delighted to be partnering with BlackStar Projects, a trailblazing Philadelphia-based organization dedicated to celebrating visionary Black, Brown, and Indigenous film and media artists, on the presentation of the first museum exhibition dedicated to Terence's multifaceted practice. It is especially rewarding to be collaborating again with Maori, who previously served as ICA's Director of Public Engagement, on this exhibition that will shed new insight into Terrence's creativity and vision."

The exhibition opens with the newly commissioned and never-before-seen Can't Tell These Kids Nothing, a two-channel installation featuring a video of poet Fred Moten and Nance's mother Vickie Washington. The next room opens to Univitellin, a multi-channel projection presented at ICA within a recreated bedroom. A star-crossed romantic tragedy—with a touch of the uncanny—the short film from 2016 unfolds on the streets of Marseille, France.

In From the Void, visitors experience excerpts of past and recent work by Nance on a linear television station broadcast by Ummah Chroma, MVMT, and Telfar. An oval projection screen shows various works from Nance's catalog, including video from Random Acts of Flyness, TELFAR.TV, music videos, and documentary shorts, among other works. The exhibition in the main gallery concludes with Swimming in Your Skin Again, a short film from 2015 celebrating the coming of age through dance- and movement-based works, scored by the artist's brother, the musician Norvis Junior. In the ICA'sTuttleman Auditorium, visitors have the opportunity to hear Nance's debut LP, V 0 R TEX, in a special listening room created for the experience of this new album.

"Terence Nance's work as a filmmaker, performer, and musician reveals an artistic practice infused with rigor and ritual. He is constantly challenging himself to explore new mediums while investigating the boundaries of romantic and familial relationships, gender, and spirituality. He makes work that isn't easily categorized, and in my own practice as a cultural organizer and producer, I have been deeply invested in work that blurs genre and pushes the boundaries of existing forms," added Holmes. "Nance has screened his innovative and daring work in nine of the past eleven editions of the BlackStar Film Festival, and he is always an amiable presence, cheerfully and generously engaging with fans, cineastes, donors, and fellow filmmakers. I am thrilled to collaborate with him once again."

Public Programs

A full list of accompanying programs will be announced in the coming weeks, including an opening reception on March 10 and a concert with Nance and opening act Madison McFerrin on May 25 and May 26 at Union Transfer.

Penn Live Arts will showcase a taste of his fascinating cinematic work with one program of his short films (listed below) on March 15 at 7:30 p.m. and a screening of An Oversimplification of Her Beauty on March 16 at 7:30 p.m.

Blank Canvas (Calvin Klein commercial, 2021)

Guisado on Sunset (2020)

Jimi Could Have Fallen from the Sky (2017)

Swimming in Your Skin Again (2014)

Univitellin (2016)

Vortex (2022)

As part of BlackStar Projects' William + Louise Greaves Filmmaker Seminar, taking place March 16-18, Nance will offer the Director's Commentary on March 17.