CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 12/28/2022

Themes of innocence, spontaneity, storytelling and resilience in 'To Begin Again: Artists and Childhood'

This may be a holiday week, but for us it's still a chance to highlight standout new releases that support the resilience and optimism we want for 2023. Thus, Njideka Akunyili Crosby's "The Beautyful Ones," Series #7 (2018) from To Begin Again: Artists and Childhood, published to accompany the exhibition, currently on view at ICA Boston, surveying the ways artists have reflected on and contributed to notions of childhood from the early twentieth century to the present. The editors write: "Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s portraits of Nigerian youth, built from a layered ground of historical, popular and personal photographs transferred to canvas, stage the interactions between sociohistorical conditions and the individual that are at the heart of human development. Her young figures return the viewer’s gaze with an uncanny self-possession and wisdom beyond their years."