There is something very special about seeing a full range of an artist work for the first time.
The current exhibit of LaToya Ruby Frazier’s current full body of work, is one that already requires me to see multiple times.

It is thick and rich, with so many stories of the human condition, affected by the outside influences of the industrialized vagaries, it will be time well spent.

When you enter the gallery, you will see family and friend portraits, sometimes integrated with the artist in a self portrait.
Beautifully made, emotional connections, told in black and white. This is just the beginning of the viewers journey.

As you make your way throughout the massive space, you will get a few places to sit and hear some of the background audio describing artist events, like her performance outside of a Levi’s pop-up.
Or have a seat and listen to the stories of some of her subjects.

This is not just a display that you wander through, stopping at an image or two for further examination.

Take your time, and listen to the stories, and read about the subjects.
There is text coupled with photos as well, to give you a fuller understanding of the subjects situation.

From MOMA: :the sequence of original installations that she calls “monuments for workers’ thoughts,” which address the harmful effects of industrialization and deindustrialization, the healthcare inequities facing Black working-class communities in the Rust Belt, the ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and the impact of the closure of a General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio. Monuments of Solidarity celebrates the expressions of creativity, mutual support, and intergenerational collaboration that persist in light of these denials of fundamental labor, human, and civil rights. As a form of Black feminist world-building, these nontraditional “monuments” demand recognition of the crucial role that women and people of color have played and continue to play in histories of labor and the working class.”
“it is incumbent upon me to resist—one photograph at a time, one photo essay at a time, one body of work at a time, one book at a time, one workers’ monument at a time—historical erasure and historical amnesia,” says artist-activist LaToya Ruby Frazier.

All in all, MOMA has brought this activist artist to a space, with proper exposition of her body of work.

You may want to pick up the catalog, in case you can’t make multiple visits, to read all of the texts. Photographs are beautifully reproduced in the volume.