In Western art, the relationship between figure and ground has long informed creative practices. Through techniques like illusionism, abstraction, multiple perspectives, and disruptions of the flat picture plane, artists have manipulated composition, depth, and perception to distinguish between forms and their background—while also showing how deeply the two are connected.

Figure/Ground: New Criteria is inspired by cultural historian Sarah Lewis’s concept of “groundwork aesthetics,” exploring figure-ground relationships and their connection to social tension. It builds on Lewis’s work, which—set against the expansion of Stand Your Ground laws across the United States since 2005, laws that broadly define rights to use lethal self-defense against perceived threats—describes a range of artistic interventions that reimagine “the literal and figurative meaning of ground.” Primarily featuring works from the Henry collection created in the twenty-first century, Figure/Ground reflects a period in which hard-won civil rights and claims to self-determination have been eroded across the US, disproportionately affecting Black, Brown, LGBTQ+, and other marginalized communities.

How might art respond when the conditions supporting artistic expression—its very ground—are under threat? Directly or more obliquely, at scales ranging from intimate to monumental, works by artists including Chakaia Booker, Denzil Hurley, Jennie C. Jones, and Stephanie Syjuco engage with the conditions that shape creative freedom.

Learn more about the Henry’s collections here.