Titus Kaphar, Sinking, 2012

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mixed media with oil on canvas wood and installation

289.56 x 157.48 x 251.46 cm
114 x 62 x 99 in

The Vesper Project is the culmination of New York City-based Titus Kaphar’s intensive engagement with the imaginary history of the Vespers, a 19th-century New England family who were able to...

The Vesper Project is the culmination of New York City-based Titus Kaphar’s intensive engagement with the imaginary history of the Vespers, a 19th-century New England family who were able to “pass” as Caucasian despite the fact that their mixed heritage made them black in the eyes of the law. Linking the artist to this family is Benjamin Vesper, a mentally troubled man who—inspired by one of Kaphar’s works—reaches out to the artist for help in reconstructing his family’s history. The resulting project interrogates notions of identity, memory, and social constructs.

A compelling art installation and imposing sculptural statement, The Vesper Project features the remains of an abandoned Connecticut home into which the artist has incorporated his own work. Through slashing, silhouetting, and whitewashing, Kaphar creates a complex map that compresses time and elides personal histories. The artist’s most ambitious project to date, The Vesper Project featured works like 'Sinking' (2012), which is composed of furniture and other household objects. Other installation pieces feature period architecture, gilt frames, a vintage typewriter, a neglected wardrobe, and old photographs, which, in the context of the artist’s intervention, disrupt perception and reality and postulate powerful new realities.

Provenance

Artist studio

Exhibitions

Vesper Project, Warehouse by MARUANI MERCIER Gallery, May-September 2019
New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT, November, 2014 - February, 2015
Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center of Contemporary Art, May - September, 2015
American University Museum at the Katzen Center, Washington, D.C, Fall 2015
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Winter 2015
The Lowe Art Museum, Miami, FL, Winter 2016
Abroms Engel Institute for the Visual Arts, Birmingham, AL, Winter 2017

Artworks

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Maruani Mercier

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Titus Kaphar American, b. 1976

Provenance

Exhibitions