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In Our Time: Eleven Artists + W.E.B. Du Bois

September 26 – December 20, 2025 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Pratt Manhattan Gallery, 144 W 14th St, New York, NY 10011

A large industrial facility on the waterfront with smokestacks and metal piping. Prominently featured on the side of a tall building is a mural-sized graphic reading “CITE Continuous Improvement To Environment” with a circular illustration of trees, birds, and a factory silhouette. The building also includes the logos “USS” and “Clairton Works.” In the foreground is a river with green trees along the bank.

Curated by Loretta Yarlow

September 26–December 20, 2025
Public Reception: Thursday, September 25, 2025, 6–8pm

Angel Abreu/Studio K.O.S.
Derrick Adams 
Radcliffe Bailey
LaToya Ruby Frazier 
Theaster Gates 
Jenny Holzer 
Julie Mehretu 
Ann Messner
Jefferson Pinder
Mickalene Thomas
Carrie Mae Weems

More than 60 years after the death of W.E.B. Du Bois, In Our Time: Eleven Artists + W.E.B. Du Bois turns to a selection of leading artists to reflect on the legacy of one of the most profound and influential African American intellectuals of the 20th century and on the impact that Du Bois has had on their work. The artists included in this exhibition offer aesthetic contributions through today’s lens to the re-examination of Du Bois’s role as a public intellectual, civil rights activist, cultural critic, sociologist, historian, environmentalist, poet, novelist, and playwright.

These artists’ research-based, socially-engaged methods attest to a meaningful approach to artistic creation. Works range from photography, painting, sculpture, and works on paper to video and installations—all motivated by Du Bois’s poetic writing, his early anticipation of women’s suffrage, environmental movements, his warnings against nuclear proliferation, and other modern afflictions. Others have found inspiration in the groundwork he laid for movements in public dissent; others still show how the problems Du Bois wrote about a century ago are still with us, and in certain cases more urgent than ever. The results of their meaningful work are both personal and universal.

Pratt Manhattan Gallery’s program is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Logo for the New York State Council on the Arts. On the left is a dark green outline of the state of New York. To the right, bold green text reads “NEW YORK STATE” stacked vertically, separated by a vertical line from the words “Council on the Arts” in larger type. The design is clean and modern, emphasizing clarity and recognition.