Joe Overstreet

Boxes

Joe Overstreet’s artistic practice is a direct response to African-American history and the sustained legacy of racism in the United States. Boxes marks an important point of evolution in his work. While Overstreet’s works from the 1950s and ‘60s are two-dimensional depictions of racial injustice and violence, the artist remarks that in the ‘70s he “was beginning to look at [his] art in a different light, not as protest, but as a statement about people.” He had “broken free from notions that paintings had to be on the wall in rectangular shapes.” This inspired him to make tent-like paintings that could be rolled up and traveled. The mobility of his art was significant for Overstreet; he said he “felt like a nomad” himself, amidst the country’s continuous struggles with racism.