Love Train

Description

D’Angelo Lovell Williams’s photographs investigate Black queer subjectivities and complicate stereotypes of Black masculinity by depicting self-love and collective embrace. In Love Train, Williams depicts himself alongside two artists who are also close friends and collaborators—painter Jarvis Boyland and sculptor Cameron Clayborn. The three stand atop a makeshift stage, and their synchronized hand gestures, mimicking a locomotive, allude to the choreography of legendary male R&B trio the O’Jays, whose hit single provides the work’s title. Wearing shimmering black tops and nylon stockings, they stand in contrast with the conventional gendered wardrobe of their historical counterparts.

Provenance

The artist; sold through Higher Pictures, New York, to Eric Ceputis and David W. Williams, Chicago; given to the Art Institute Chicago, Nov. 10, 2020.

Love Train

D'Angelo Lovell Williams

2018

Accession Number

254341

Medium

Inkjet print

Dimensions

127 × 101.6 cm (50 × 40 in.)

Classification

21st Century

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Gift of Eric Ceputis and David W. Williams