In June, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, was scheduled to mount “The Breath of Empty Space,” an exhibition by the Brooklyn artist Shaun Leonardo, whose charcoal drawings often represent violence against Black men at the hands of police. (He began the series in 2014 with a depiction of the late Trayvon Martin.) After local Black activists and museum staff members objected to the subject matter, the museum canceled the show, citing that locals weren’t equipped to deal with images of “lived experiences of pain and trauma.”

Controversy quickly ensued—Leonardo denounced the decision as “institutional white fragility” and an act of censorship, causing the museum to publicly apologize and its longtime director, Jill Snyder, to resign after 23 years at the helm. At the height of the scandal, which coincided with the recent Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality after the death of George Floyd, MASS MoCA and the Bronx Museum of the Arts expressed interest in giving “The Breath of Empty Space” its well-deserved space to be seen.

Having worked with both museums on previous initiatives, Leonardo agreed, and now the show will soon open at MASS MoCA (Aug. 26–Dec. 22), before traveling to the Bronx Museum of the Arts in the spring (Jan. 20–May 2021). Curators at both museums, including Laura Thompson and Jasmine Wahi, “were willing to invite the tension in, and create space for the critical dialogue around the work,” explains Leonardo, who admits to being heartened about the debate caused by his show’s cancellation. “To see that people found solace and sought to look for meaning and intentionality in that work was touching.”

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When: Sept. 19–Oct. 24

Where: David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles

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