Still from Isaac Julien’s "Lessons of the Hour," about the life and times of Frederick Douglass, showing two people in a carriage

Isaac Julien, North Star (Lessons of the Hour) (detail), 2019. Framed photograph on gloss inkjet paper mounted on aluminum, 63 x 84 in. (160 x 213.3 cm) © Isaac Julien. Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro

Isaac Julien: I Dream a World

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Over the last 25 years, pioneering artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien (b. 1960, London) has created immersive, multichannel video installations. Celebrated for his poetic visual narratives, Julien explores power, politics, and personal experience through the lens of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Featuring 10 major video installations made between 1999 and 2022, alongside select early single-channel films including his iconic Looking for Langston (1989), this exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of Julien’s work in a museum setting and his first retrospective in the United States. The works’ themes range from global migration to the collection and appropriation of African artists and art by Western museums to the celebration of cultural figures who overcame racial oppression. Shot across Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, the Americas, and Asia, Julien’s works untangle the complex web of post-colonial conditions that has shaped the lives of individuals and societies across the globe.


Julien’s Ten Thousand Waves (2010) will be on view in Wilsey Court — one of the de Young’s free public spaces.

Sponsors

Support for this exhibition has been generously provided by Bank of America.

Presenting Sponsor

Lead Sponsors

Major Support
Stanlee Gatti
Rebecca and Cal Henderson
The Herbst Foundation, Inc.

Significant Support
Jeffrey N. Dauber and Marc A. Levin
Sakurako and William Fisher
Brook Hartzell and Tad Freese
Tara and Bryan Meehan
Joanna Miller
The Helen & Will Webster Foundation

Generous Support
Jessica Silverman
Victoria Miro
Gwynned Vitello
Lisa and Jim Zanze

Additional support is provided in memory of Mary Beth Hagey, and by Lore Harp McGovern and Katie and Matt Paige.

Also on view