Ken Gonzales Day

Through visualizing, absence and erasure, artist Ken Gonzales-Day reveals the deeply political act of seeing, forcing us to reconsider the histories we inherit. Gonzales-Day’s work confronts the role of the visual in conveying history or in history’s absences, including those bodies and spaces deliberately erased, forgotten or never acknowledged. As illustrated and discussed in Ken Gonzales-Day: History’s “Nevermade”, his photography, films, drawings and paintings interrogate race and power, questioning how bodies are seen, rendered or made invisible. His art moves between presence and absence, compelling viewers to confront their own position in relation to systems of oppression and representation. Accompanying the exhibition of the same name, this is the first comprehensive study of Gonzales-Day’s practice. Amelia Jones is the Robert A. Day professor in critical studies and curatorial studies at the Roski School of Art & Design at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, USA. Ken Gonzales-Day’s work confronts the role of the visual in conveying history or in history’s absences, including those bodies and spaces deliberately erased, forgotten or never acknowledged. As illustrated and discussed in Ken Gonzales-Day: History’s "Nevermade", his photography, films, drawings and paintings interrogate race and power, questioning how bodies are seen, rendered or made invisible. His art moves between presence and absence, compelling viewers to confront their own position in relation to systems of oppression and representation. This volume, accompanying the exhibition of the same name, offers the first comprehensive study of Gonzales-Day’s practice. Organized around his major series, sections of the book – including ‘Rethinking History’, ‘Collecting Race’, ‘Forging Community’, and ‘Redrawing Boundaries’ – explore how his work engages with archives, bodies, museums and public space to challenge institutional narratives. Through critical analysis and illustrated throughout, Ken Gonzales-Day: History’s "Nevermade" illuminates the profound political and theoretical stakes of his art. Essential reading for students, scholars, and practitioners in art history, photography, museum studies, American history and decolonial and queer studies, this book is a testament to the power of art to reckon with the past and imagine new futures.