A comprehensive retrospective exhibition featuring the work of renowned conceptual artist Carrie Mae Weems has opened at the Gallerie d'Italia Turin, part of the Intesa Sanpaolo Museum. The exhibition, titled "Carrie Mae Weems: The Heart of the Matter," presents approximately one hundred works that offer visitors an in-depth look at the artist's complete body of work, including a specially commissioned project created specifically for Intesa Sanpaolo.
The centerpiece of the exhibition is "Preach," a multi-faceted installation commissioned exclusively for this show. Weems has accompanied the installation with her own poetry: "In the flames and among the bombs, pray where and when you can. From your secret hiding place, you have discovered new forms of worship." This series explores the fervent forms of worship that characterize Weems' experience in the Black Church while simultaneously denouncing the violence and oppression inextricably linked to history.
"Preach" combines archival images from Harlem, San Diego, and Sea Island with new works that evoke both the transcendental and secular nature of religious expression for today's Black Americans. "My work focuses on describing simply and directly the aspects of American culture that need deeper illumination," Weems explains. Like many of her other series, a human figure appears prominently in this work—an emblematic presence that seems to carry meaning beyond reality, creating a memorable figure that provokes thought and remains etched in memory long after viewing.
Weems herself emphasizes that she began photographing herself after realizing she was literally both in front of and behind the camera. "I am both subject and object, performer and director. I realized that I have been acting, performing, and observing in this way for years," she states. "This woman can stand in the historical moment and bear witness to the past, present, and public and private memories that have shaped our lives as Black people here in America. I discovered that I was the reference point and the viewpoint. Then I realized that this photographic self was a muse and a guide to the unknown."
As Weems describes her artistic persona, she functions as a performative character: "I call her my muse. She's my alter ego. But she has a very real function in my professional life." The muse made her first appearance in "Kitchen Table" (1990), and according to Weems, "this woman can represent me and represent you; she can represent the audience; she takes you into history. She is a witness and a guide."
Exhibition curator Sarah Meister notes that "Weems has placed her subjectivity at the center, as an expansive construction. Even when she directed her camera at her family and friends, these encounters were presented as her own relationships and inscribed within a personal narrative." Her family, for example, becomes the representative vehicle through which she addresses broader debates about race, social class, and historical migrations.
The retrospective includes significant works such as "Museums" (2006-ongoing), "Scenes and Takes" (2016), and "Painting the Town" (2021), as well as video installations including "The Shape of Things" (2021) and "Leave Now!" (2022). As an African American artist, Carrie Mae Weems confronts constructions of race and femininity in search of new models of living.
Grounded in her unique experience as a Black woman, yet universal in its explorations of family relationships, cultural identity, power structures, and social hierarchy, her artistic practice focuses primarily on photography while also incorporating text, audio, installations, objects, and video. Her background as an anthropologist has led her to explore folk traditions using observational methods from the social sciences, as well as to appropriate and adapt archival and ethnographic images.
Through her photography, Weems highlights the historical oversight of Black women in artistic institutions and canons. Much of her recent and current work focuses on power and architecture, examining how spaces and structures reflect and reinforce social hierarchies.
The exhibition at Gallerie d'Italia Turin is sponsored by the Piedmont Region and the City of Turin and was created in collaboration with the Aperture Foundation. It is accompanied by a catalogue published by Società Allemandi in collaboration with Aperture. The Turin museum, dedicated to photography and video, along with those in Milan, Naples, and Vicenza, is part of Intesa Sanpaolo's Gallerie d'Italia museum project. "Carrie Mae Weems: The Heart of the Matter" runs from April 17 to September 7, 2025, at Gallerie d'Italia Turin, located at Piazza San Carlo 156, 10121 Turin, Italy.
