Is it precisely these spaces that Barnard is depicting — institutions of privilege. The emphasis in this series is to highlight the role of these spaces in the perpetuation of racial violence in the United States, and these paintings call us to reconsider their supposed neutrality. These places are non-specific, but they are familiar to us: University libraries, courts of law, art institutions, and the kind of monumental spaces that are always associated with wealth and authority. But these are not literal depictions; something is happening in these spaces.
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