In his films, for which he only uses a 16mm camera, Kevin Jerome Everson (b. 1965, Mansfield, OH, lives in Charlottseville VA) directs the lens at Black people without enforcing any kind of specific representation. The film scholar and companion of the artist, Greg de Cuir Jr., describes his work as driven by the concern to record everyday “Black experience.” The exhibition in Graz focuses on a depiction of Black American realities, and on the work of the filmmaker himself, looking at the materiality of analog film and its capacity to reproduce reality from a certain characteristic perspective. Recover, the first major solo exhibition of Everson in German-speaking Europe, combines poetic images from various Black American lives with observations of universal phenomena such as the horizon and the cosmos. This juxtaposition leads to storylines that inspire us to reflect on the different meanings of perspective. Everson makes no specific proposals as to how to interpret his works, and yet the exhibition again and again raises one and the same question: “What is our perspective through which we see the world?” A question that cannot be answered in just one sentence, and a question that is crucial.

MOCA’s online platform for experimental film and video art returns this October with SCREEN: Kevin Jerome Everson. Throughout the month, moca.org/screen will host four short films, one each week, by artist and filmmaker Kevin Jerome Everson: IFO (2017), Traveling Shoes (2019), Vanilla Cake with Strawberry Filling (2014), and Music from the Edge of the Allegheny Plateau (2019). 

Kevin Jerome Everson, arguably one of the most prolific, and important experimental filmmakers currently working, is an artist who thinks through the particular problems of cinema by making it. His tireless output exemplifies American painter and film critic Manny Farber’s description of “termite art” as having “no sign that the artist has any other object in mind other than eating away the immediate boundaries of his art, and turning these boundaries into conditions of the next achievement.” Everson’s films, light and deeply affective, are never not alive: each new film surprises. His themes, though clearly identifiable, are never forced; they emerge organically through the course of his work. Everson’s oeuvre is one of the most significant records of contemporary African American life. Los Angeles Filmforum at MOCA is proud to present this program of recent work by Everson, with the artist in attendance. 

Images Festival showcases artistic excellence in contemporary moving image culture through screening programs, gallery exhibitions, live performances, and discursive events. Since 1988, the Images Festival has presented media works that open critical dialogues and provides alternative ways of thinking and seeing, expanding the understanding of moving image art through our programming and education-based initiatives.

Kevin Jerome Everson will be honored in this 41st edition of Cinéma du réel. 7 feature films, 2 short-film programs and an installation will be presented to illustrate the work of this prolific artist who combines scripted and documentary elements to examine certain conditions -- physical, natural, socio-economic­ in the daily lives of African-Americans. His films offer a rich image book of people and communities often marginalized in the mainstream history of the United States and almost absent from cinema screens.

Walker Moving Image Commissions returns this fall. Artists Kevin Jerome Everson and Deborah Stratman have each been commissioned to create new videos responding to the inspiration, inquiry, and influence of key artists in the Walker’s Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection. Everson connects to gospel music and iconic rock-and-roll singer Little Richard in William Klein’s documentary The Little Richard Story (1980) through the African American communities of Mansfield, Ohio, while Stratman incorporates the sound, text, and teachings of Maya Deren in a montage responding to artist Barbara Hammer’s unused film footage. Drawing together an array of footage, photographs, and texts from archival and contemporary sources, the two new works reach into the past to explore contemporary life, art, and creative expression. The new commissions will be available to view online through January 8, 2019 and in gallery as part of the exhibition, Platforms: Collection and Commissions, opening November 15, 2018.

Presenting work by 32 artists and artist collectives, the exhibition invites visitors to explore what it means to be “international” at this moment in time, and to experience museum joy. The pleasure of being with art and other people inspired the composition of this International—a series of encounters with contemporary art inside the world of Carnegie Museum of Art.

Images Festival showcases artistic excellence in contemporary moving image culture through screening programs, gallery exhibitions, live performances, and discursive events. Since 1988, Images has presented media works that open critical dialogues and provides alternative ways of thinking and seeing, expanding the understanding of moving image art through our programming and education-based initiatives.

The 31st edition of Images Festival presents 13 gallery exhibitions, 78 on-screen works, and five live performances taking place throughout the Greater Toronto Area.