“If you would’ve asked Antwaun what he would be doing when you’re 33, I would’ve never said this. Now, he’s the most buzzed-about curator-gallerist on the scene, whether the establishment likes it or not.
Sargent is 34 years old and speaks with the authority of someone much older while still exhibiting the excitability of a Gen Z TikTok star. His proclamations, which he can pose as outrageous provocations without indicating that his tongue is fully in his cheek, often end with a dramatic upswing in pitch. He’s lithe, a former cross-country runner who still bikes hundreds of miles a week, and often coils his body as he begins a story, affecting a pounce when he hits his crescendo.
Sargent’s trajectory from outsider to consummate insider has come amid a movement to bring Black artists more into the programming at blue-chip galleries and top-flight institutions, where for centuries they’ve been marginalized or not shown at all. No one has done this more visibly than Sargent, becoming an art world micro-celebrity along the way, with nearly 100,000 Instagram followers.
“I do understand that there is a space that I carved out, and I am sensitive to that,” he said. “If you would’ve asked Antwaun what he would be doing when you’re 33, I would’ve never said this. Never in my life would I have said this.”For the last few years, many major institutions and blue-chip galleries have gone out of their way to correct the long-standing inequity of Black artists in programming and collections—between 2008 and 2018, just 2.
To many in art’s old guard, this deems him unworthy. That this concerns the most air-kissed echelons of the art world, few inhabitants would even voice their criticisms for attribution, but suffice it to say Sargent has his haters, and they typically have two or three lines of complaint.
Around the time of the Walker show, Sargent pivoted his writing almost exclusively to art. He contributed catalog essays for gallery shows, which gave way to some early curatorial work. For the photography nonprofit Aperture, he put together the bookwhich spawned several reprintings and a world-touring show. After that, Lumpkin, whose Tribeca apartment has long been a site of cultural salons, approached him about a monograph for his collection.
By the time the Lumpkin show began traveling the country under Sargent’s direction in February 2020, the critical establishment was starting to more regularly cover Black artists, but often in a way that unsettled Sargent. The praise, as he saw it, now seemed too effusive. Or, as Sargent said, “It’s all these white critics lying because they don’t want to be racist about how great Black art is.of them? I’m sorry... you called this shit awful seven years ago, because I read your review.
For his Gagosian debut, Sargent proposed something much more ambitious than his programming to that point: “Social Works,” a group show of Black artists involved in performance and installation-based practices that involve some aspect of community organizing. Adjaye made a 60-ton freestanding sculpture . Linda Goode Bryant installed a fully operational urban farm, with the produce bagged and pinned on the walls.
I ran into Mitchell walking through Mayfair on the way to the show, and as we approached, I saw a series of diptych photos visible through the window. Unlike most of Gagosian’s other galleries, this one has floor-to-ceiling windows to display the bulk of the show to the public, with the lights kept on until midnight.
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