Kahlil Joseph
Sampha Sisay’s Process (2017), still from the film by Kahlil Joseph
About the Artist
Kahlil Joseph gained notoriety in the early 2010s for his beautifully-shot short films made in collaboration with some of the most respected, politically engaged, and forward-thinking hip-hop artists of the moment, such as Kendrick Lamar, Flying Lotus, Shabazz Palaces, and FKA Twigs, as well as indie rock bands such as Arcade Fire. Initially hailed as one of the most important hip hop video directors (he is also one of the seven filmmakers who directed with Beyoncé’s visual album Lemonade), he is now considered one the most influential contemporary installation artists. He is the director of the artist collective What Matters Most , which pursues a similar surreal aesthetics as a way to reimagine more expansive possibilities for blackness. He also serves as the artistic director of the Underground Museum in Los Angeles, co-founded with his late brother, the artist Noah Davis.
In 2012, Joseph’s short film “Until the Quiet Comes” for Flying Lotus received widespread critical acclaim: the film won the “Grand Jury Prize” for Short Films at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and “Video of the Year” at the UK Video Music Awards. It was also featured in the exhibition, eMERGING: Visual Art & Music in a Post-Hip-Hop Era, curated by James Bartlett for the Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Arts (MoCADA) in Brooklyn, NY, and in the Ruffneck Constructivists exhibit for the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, curated by world renowned contemporary silhouette artist Kara Walker (2014). Kahlil Joseph: Double Conscience , his first solo show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in 2015, included a 2-screen video installation titled m.A.A.d, featuring visual materials inspired by Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d city gathered for the musician’s opening of Kanye West’s Yeezus tour. m.A.A.d has since been exhibited around the world. In 2016, Joseph directed most of Beyoncé’s visual album Lemonade for which he received an Emmy nomination.
In 2017, Joseph directed a visual album for Sampha Sisay’s album Process, a musical essay film about memory, loss, and retention that moves in between London and Freetown, Sierra Leone. His installation Fly Paper, entirely set in Harlem and fashioned after the aesthetic sensibility of still photographer Roy DeCarava and commissioned by the Store X-The Vinyl Factory, was first shown at the New Museum (New York City, September 2017 – January 2018), as part of a solo show called Shadow Play, and at the 180 Strand in London, within the exhibition Strange Days: Memories of the Future. Black Mary (2017), a companion piece to Fly Paper, debuted during the final week of the Tate’s exhibition Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power. More recently, Joseph’s two-screen installation BLKNWS (incubated at Stanford University), which weaves together YouTube, social media, and news clips, as well as excerpts from film and music videos, was showcased in the 2019 Venice Biennale. BLKNWS was also presented at the By the People Festival in Washington, D.C. Additionally, the BLKNWS installation was shown at the David Zwirner solo show dedicated to Noah Davis and at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Beginning Summer 2020, Joseph joined 13 other visual artists who use sound as their primary influence and working material in an exhibition, Reverb: Sound into Art, at Hayward Gallery in London.
liquid blackness in conversation with Kahlil Joseph
Selected Works
Director
BLKNWS, 2019
Fly Paper, 2017
Black Mary, 2017
Process, 2017
Music is My Mistress, 2017
Lemonade, 2016, co-director
The Reflektor Tapes, 2015
Dawn in Luxor, 2015
Video Girl, 2014
m.AA.d, 2014
Nooksie & Janet, 2014
Wildcat, 2014
Until the Quiet Comes, 2012
The Mirror Between Us, 2012
Black Up, 2011
Belhaven Meridian, 2010
EXHIBITIONS AND SCREENINGS
Solo Exhibitions
One Day at a Time: Kahlil Joseph’s Fly Paper, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, October 14, 2018 – March 11, 2019
Kahlil Joseph: Shadow Play, New Museum, New York City, NY, September 27, 2017 – January 7, 2018
Kahlil Joseph: New Suns, Bonnefanten, Maastricht, Netherlands, January 12, 2017 – March 25, 2018
Kahlil Joseph: Double Consciousness, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, March 20 – August 16, 2015
Nooksi & Janet
Nooksi & Janet (2014), 2-chanel video, Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland, 2016
m.A.A.d
m.A.A.d. (2014), 2-channel video, New Museum, New York City, NY, September 27, 2017 – January 7, 2018
m.A.A.d. (2014), 2-channel video, Hayward Gallery, London, United Kingdom, September 9 – November 12, 2016
m.A.A.d. (2014), 2-channel video, Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland, 2016
m.A.A.d. (2014), 2-channel video, Los Angeles, CA, March 20 – August 16, 2015
m.A.A.d. (2014), 2-channel video, The Underground Museum, Los Angeles, CA, July – September, 2014
Black Mary
Black Mary (2017), Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom, July 12 – October 22, 2017 (commissioned)
Fly Paper
Fly Paper (2017), Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, October 14, 2018 – March 11, 2019
Fly Paper (2017), The Store X, Strange Days: Memories of the Future, London, United Kingdom, October 2 – December 9, 2018
Fly Paper (2017), The New Museum, New York, September 27, 2017 – January 7, 2018
BLKNWS
Black Earth Film Series: Khalil Joseph, Onye Anyanwu, and Bradford Young, at Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, March 22, 2022
Belcourt Theatre, Nashville, Tennessee, 2020
Cinema Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, 2020
The Loft Cinema, Tucson, Arizona, 2020
Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2020
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, 2020
Nitehawk Cinema, Brooklyn, New York, 2020
Northwest Film Forum, Seattle, Washington, 2020
O Cinema, Miami, Florida, 2020
Parkway Theatre, Baltimore, Maryland, 2020
The State Theatre, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2020
Texas Theatre, Dallas, Texas, 2020
Hammer Museum, Made in L.A. 2020: a version, Los Angeles, CA, June 7 – August 30, 2020
Sundance Film Festival, Park City, UT, January 27 – January 31, 2020
David Swirner, Noah Davis, New York City, NY, January 16 – February 22, 2020
Cantor Arts Center, Stanford, CA, October 10, 2018 – June 16, 2019
Other Exhibitions and Screenings
Reverb: Sound into Art, Hayward Gallery, London, United Kingdom, June 24 – September 6, 2020
May You Live in Interesting Times, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, May 11 – November 24, 2019
Ruffneck Constructivisits, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA, February 12 – August 17, 2014
eMERGING: Visual Art in a Post Hip-Hop Era¸ Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art, Brooklyn, NY, February 14 – May 26, 2013
SELECTED REVIEWS
m.A.A.d
Jansen, Charlotte. “Kahlil Joseph’s m.A.A.d.” Elephant, October 28, 2017. https://elephant.art/kahlil-josephs-m-a-a-d/
Watts, Jonathan P. “The Infinite Mix.” Frieze, October 3, 2016. https://www.frieze.com/article/infinite-mix
Searle, Adrian. “The Infinite Mix review – Video-Art Medley Dances Madly with Big Ideas.” The Guardian, September 7, 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/sep/07/the-infinite-mix-review-store-hayward
Miranda, Carolina A. “Kendrick Lamar’s Video Director Kahlil Joseph Takes His Hypnotic Art to MOCA.” Los Angeles Times, March 25, 2015. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/miranda/la-et-cam-kahlil-joseph-video-at-moca-20150323-column.html
Black Mary
Helfet, Gabriela. “Watch Kahlil Joseph’s New Film for Tate Modern’s Soul of a Nation Exhibition.” The Vinyl Factory, October 23, 2017. https://thevinylfactory.com/films/kahlil-joseph-new-film-black-mary-soul-of-a-nation/
Fly Paper
Solway, Diane. “Kahlil Joseph is Challenging Representations of Black Life in America,” Surface, December 2, 2019. https://www.surfacemag.com/articles/kahlil-joseph-challenging-black-life/
Colony Little. “Barry Jenkins and Kahlil Joseph Reimagine Roy DeCarava’s Admiring Vision of Harlem,” Hyperallergic, December 28, 2018. https://hyperallergic.com/477374/barry-jenkins-and-kahlil-joseph-reimagine-roy-decaravas-admiring-vision-of-harlem/
McClean, Matthew. “We are Strangely Used to Asking Artists to Turn Down Their Sound,” Frieze, October 6, 2018. https://www.frieze.com/article/we-are-strangely-used-asking-artists-turn-down-their-sound
Sargent, Antwaun. “At Least They’ll See the Black.” Aperture 231, June 19, 2018. https://aperture.org/editorial/theyll-see-black-jafa-joseph/
Als, Hilton. “The Black Excellence of Kahlil Joseph.” The New Yorker, October 30, 2017. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/06/the-black-excellence-of-kahlil-joseph[JB4]
BLKNWS
Jackson, Angelique. “Kahlil Joseph’s ‘BLKNWS’ Video Installation Gets Feature Adaptation from A24, Participant.” Variety, January 27, 2022, https://variety.com/2022/film/news/kahlil-joseph-blknws-movie-a24-participant-1235165221/
Welk, Brian. “Kahlil Joseph to Adapt Video Art Installation ‘BLKNWS’ as Feature with A24 and Participant” The Wrap, January 27, 2022. https://www.thewrap.com/kahlil-joseph-blknws-feature-film-a24-participant/.
Grobar, Matt. “BLKNWS’: Kahlil Joseph To Direct Feature Adaptation Of His Video Exhibition For Participant & A24.” Deadline, January 27, 2022 https://deadline.com/2022/01/blknws-kahlil-joseph-sets-feature-directorial-debut-for-participant-a24-1234921031/
Greenberger, Alex. “Kahlil Joseph to Develop Acclaimed ‘BLKNWS’ Video Installation Into Feature Film.” ARTnews, January 27, 2022 https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/kahlil-joseph-blknws-a24-film-1234616895/.
Garcia, Nahui. “Made in L.A. 2020: a version Kahlil Joseph’s BLKNWS.” Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles, March 3, 2021 https://contemporaryartreview.la/made-in-la-2020-a-version-kahlil-josephs-blknws/.
Knight, Christopher. “Review: Whose news? Artist Khalil Joseph’s ‘BLKNWS’ delivers what CNN or FOX do not.”Los Angeles Times, October27, 2020. https//www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-10-27/khalil-joseph-blknws.
Dinsdale, Emily. “Artist Kahlil Joseph’s BLKNWS project is an antidote to a toxic news cycle.” Dazed, May 18th, 2020. https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/49132/1/artist-kahlil-josephs-blknws-project-is-an-antidote-to-a-toxic-news-cycle
Choudhury, Bedatri D. “Kahlil Joseph Imagines a News Channel Foregrounded in Black Excellence.” Hyperallergic, January 31, 2020. https://hyperallergic.com/540201/blknws-kahlil-joseph-sundance/
Goldstein, Andrew. “Why TV Executives Should Make Artist Kahlil Joseph’s ‘BLKNWS’ Network, a Star of the Venice Biennale, Into a Reality.” Artnews, May 14, 2019. https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/blknws-kahlil-joseph-vience-biennale-2019-1543222
Kay, Jeremy. “Climate Crisis, Wealth Inequality under spotlight in Sundance 2020 New Frontier content.” ScreenDaily, December 12, 2019. https://www.screendaily.com/news/climate-crisis-wealth-inequality-under-spotlight-in-sundance-2020-new-frontier-content/5145587.article?referrer=RSS
Raengo, Alessandra. “The Heat is On,” Refract: An Open Access Journal of Visual Studies, 2, no. 1 (Fall 2019): 31-44. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1n22g022
Other
Bakare, Lanre. “From Beyoncé to Sorry to Bother You: the New Age of Afro-surrealism.” The Guardian. December 6, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/dec/06/afro-surrealism-black-artists-racist-society[JB5]
Lampe, Lilly. “Kahlil Joseph’s Double Act.” Art Papers Magazine 39, no. 3 (May 2015): 18–23.
SELECTED INTERVIEWS
Solway, Diane. “Kahlil Joseph Is Challenging Representations of Black Life in America.” Surface, December 2, 2019. https://www.surfacemag.com/articles/kahlil-joseph-challenging-black-life/
Jansen, Charlotte. “Kahlil Joseph: Caught in a Spell.” Elephant, February 14, 2018. https://elephant.art/kahlil-joseph-caught-spell/
Lissoni, Andrea. “Kahlil Joseph.” Kaleidoscope, Fall/Winter 2017-2018. https://www.kaleidoscope.media/article/kahlil-joseph[JB1]
Dallas, Paul. “Kahlil Joseph on Sound, Silence, and Spirituality.” Extra Extra Magazine, No 9, 2017. https://extraextramagazine.com/talk/kahlil-joseph-sound-silence-spirituality/
“Kahlil Joseph & Arthur Jafa: In Conversation.” Youtube, uploaded by Tate Talks, August 10, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otPECh1Q2xQ
AWARDS
Quiet Lotus’ Until the Quiet Comes, still from the film by Kahlil Joseph