Foreword by Thelma Golden. Text by Connie H. Choi, Reinhard Bek, Paul Stephen Benjamin, Nikita Gale, Habiba Hopson, Glenn Ligon, Krista Thompson.
A milestone publication shedding light on the groundbreaking contributions of an under-recognized artist whose art and activism resonates in contemporary culture
Published with Studio Museum in Harlem.
Collaborating with an engineer at the Radio Corporation of America, American artist Tom Lloyd developed a highly experimental and technologically advanced art practice in the 1960s that challenged popular understandings of the work and role of Black artists. In 1968 his pioneering artwork was the focus of the inaugural exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem, Electronic Refractions II. Based on extensive new scholarship and intensive conservation work, this publication accompanies a landmark retrospective exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem exploring 20 years of the artist's career, including his pivotal contributions to the intersection of art and technology, and paying tribute to his activism. This is the first-ever comprehensive catalog on the artist and features an exclusive selection of never-before-seen images that chronicle Lloyd's career, including photographs of the artist collaborating with engineer Alan Sussman, nonextant works and past installations. Designed by Miko McGinty and richly illustrated with full-color reproductions of artworks, studio photographs and an illustrated chronology, Tom Lloyd also includes new essays by former Studio Museum curator Connie H. Choi, conservator Reinhard Bek, historian Krista Thompson, Studio Museum senior curatorial assistant Habiba Hopson, and artists Paul Stephen Benjamin, Nikita Gale and Glenn Ligon. Artist, activist and community organizer Tom Lloyd (1929–96) was an early pioneer of using electric light as an artistic medium. Born and raised in Jamaica, Queens, he was the founder of the Store Front Museum/Paul Robeson Theatre, Queens's first art museum.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Artforum
Thelma Golden
Though lesser-known to contemporary art audiences than many Black and kinetic artists of his generation, Lloyd remains something of a guiding light for the Studio Museum...
The New Yorker
Hilton Als
I wonder how many of the makers Lloyd nurtured in those years in Queens knew of his younger self, the artist who created light, and who now ... lives on in a Harlem version of Houston’s Rothko Chapel: meditative but alive, pulsing to the rhythm of modern times and the flashes and lulls of life on the avenue, uptown and down.
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Featured image, of Tom Lloyd on the opening night of his solo show Electronic Refractions II—the inaugural exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem, 1968—is from Tom Lloyd, the exhibition catalog to the museum’s current exhibition, which closes March 22 to great critical acclaim. “An early pioneer of using electric light as an artistic medium, Tom Lloyd developed a highly experimental and technologically advanced art practice in the 1960s that set him apart from many of his fellow artists,” curator Connie H. Choi writes. “Employing a purposely limited but defined vocabulary of colors, forms, and shapes, Lloyd challenged not only understandings of art at the time but, perhaps more important, the definition of art made by Black artists. He thereby promoted a relationship between abstraction and blackness that was greatly debated during the 1960s, and one that continues to animate conversations around artistic practices.” continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9.75 x 11.75 in. / 168 pgs / 238 color / 25 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $55.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $77 GBP £45.00 ISBN: 9781941366844 PUBLISHER: Gregory R. Miller & Co. AVAILABLE: 10/14/2025 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by Gregory R. Miller & Co.. Foreword by Thelma Golden. Text by Connie H. Choi, Reinhard Bek, Paul Stephen Benjamin, Nikita Gale, Habiba Hopson, Glenn Ligon, Krista Thompson.
A milestone publication shedding light on the groundbreaking contributions of an under-recognized artist whose art and activism resonates in contemporary culture
Published with Studio Museum in Harlem.
Collaborating with an engineer at the Radio Corporation of America, American artist Tom Lloyd developed a highly experimental and technologically advanced art practice in the 1960s that challenged popular understandings of the work and role of Black artists. In 1968 his pioneering artwork was the focus of the inaugural exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem, Electronic Refractions II.
Based on extensive new scholarship and intensive conservation work, this publication accompanies a landmark retrospective exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem exploring 20 years of the artist's career, including his pivotal contributions to the intersection of art and technology, and paying tribute to his activism. This is the first-ever comprehensive catalog on the artist and features an exclusive selection of never-before-seen images that chronicle Lloyd's career, including photographs of the artist collaborating with engineer Alan Sussman, nonextant works and past installations.
Designed by Miko McGinty and richly illustrated with full-color reproductions of artworks, studio photographs and an illustrated chronology, Tom Lloyd also includes new essays by former Studio Museum curator Connie H. Choi, conservator Reinhard Bek, historian Krista Thompson, Studio Museum senior curatorial assistant Habiba Hopson, and artists Paul Stephen Benjamin, Nikita Gale and Glenn Ligon.
Artist, activist and community organizer Tom Lloyd (1929–96) was an early pioneer of using electric light as an artistic medium. Born and raised in Jamaica, Queens, he was the founder of the Store Front Museum/Paul Robeson Theatre, Queens's first art museum.
