Commemoration Plate, 2nd edition by Carrie Mae Weems

In collaboration with the artist, we are thrilled to release the second edition of Carrie Mae Weems' "Commemorating: Every black man who lives to see twenty-one" plate based on the original 1992 production. 

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In 1992, Weems’s released a twenty-plate limited-edition series entitled "Commemorating."  Each plate design featured a different text that celebrated or honored moments of Black history, both big and small.  Perhaps the best known from this series is the plate which read, "Commemorating: Every Black Man Who Lives to See Twenty-One," a phrase that is as applicable today as it was over twenty years ago.  Today, the plate's meaning takes on added layers of complexity with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and increased racial unrest.  The release of the 2nd edition of this important work recognizes how little our world has changed while giving a voice to victims of racism. 

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This new edition uses the same plate from the original series, a classic ivory plate design with gold trim produced by the American china manufacturer Lenox, best known for its White House commissions and customized tableware for high-ranking political figures and agencies. 

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Carrie Mae Weems (born April 20, 1953) is an American multi-media artist working in text, audio, instillation, video, textiles and most notably photography. She rose to prominence in the 1990s following her photographic project, The Kitchen Table Series that depicts a fictional drama with Weems as the lead. The series explores the constantly shifting roles of women as lover, mother, daughter, and friend, giving viewers an intimate look at a woman's interior life. Weems's work is steeped in Black history and often serves as contemporary discourse on topics such as familial relationships, cultural identity, systems of oppression, politics, and the consequences of power.

Over the course of her career, Weems has received countless honors, including the Prix de Roma, the National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship, and the MacArthur “Genius Grant.” In 2014, she became the first Black woman to mount a retrospective at the Guggenheim, and her work can be found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Modern, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.