Date and Time
- Wednesday, Sep 30, 2026 11am - 8pm
Location
YBCA
701 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA
Details
Dread Scott: The Body Politic brings together work that reflects Dread Scott’s longtime commitment to art that confronts political issues and interrogates American patriotism.
On view in the exhibition are two newly commissioned projects, as well as a selection of pre-existing works. Defending the Flag is a durational performance piece in which a guard dressed in military uniform stands in front of a U.S. flag on a flagpole while holding a military rifle, crystallizing social power dynamics in the form of a charged encounter between the state and the public. The second commissioned piece is a monumental work on canvas made up of dozens of body prints—ethereal and abstract, while giving form to the latent strength of a united body politic. In addition to these new pieces, The Body Politic will include a large screenprint on canvas titled Imagine a World Without America (Green Land) (2025), as well as a group of pre-existing body prints, evincing the artist’s long-time engagement with this form of image-making.
At once cool and confrontational, Scott’s work insists on the inseparability of art and radical social transformation. The exhibition draws on the urgency of the present moment, inviting viewers to consider their own positions within the systems his work lays bare.
Dread Scott: The Body Politic is curated by René Morales.
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