Roberto Visani
My creative practice explores the physical, ephemeral, dimensional terrain of the human form. Through sculpture, drawing, photography and other media I create artworks which move between representation and abstraction, mediating conditions of the past, present, and a speculative future. A recurring inquiry is the reinterpretation of African diaspora artifacts and archives, examining the historical forces that shape conceptions of the Black body as both autonomous subject and anonymous object.
My work has been exhibited in such venues as the New Museum of Contemporary Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Bronx Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and Barbican Galleries. Recent exhibitions include Form/Reform at the Brattlesboro Museum, The Promise at the Speed Museum of Art, and Past as Prologue at the National Academy of Design.
Fellowships include the US Fulbright Program to Ghana — a formative experience that deepened my engagement with African diaspora histories and the New York Foundation for the Arts among others. I have held residencies at Art Omi, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Chelsea College of Art, London and will be in residence at the Instituto Sacatar in summer 2026. My work has been reviewed by the New York Times, Artforum, Frieze, Hyperallergic, and Art Papers and I have published writings for The Brooklyn Rail and British Art Studies. Since 2004 I have been a member of the faculty at the City University of New York.