Jeffrey Uslip, chief curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum and deputy director for exhibitions and programs, resigned Monday, October 10 following community outrage over a racially charged exhibit.
CAM’s “Direct Drive” exhibition by Kelley Walker sparked outrage among the black creative community for its depiction of images of African Americans. Walker silk-screens images from the Civil Rights Movement smeared with chocolate and centerfolds from King, an urban men’s magazine that was most popular in the early to mid-2000s, drizzled with toothpaste.
Uslip curated the Walker show, giving the white artist his first solo American museum exhibition.
The controversy began after a September 17 gallery talk with Walker, when community artists felt Walker and Uslip wouldn’t answer their questions. Artist and activist Damon Davis called for a boycott of the museum immediately after the talk.
When he heard Uslip resigned from CAM to take a position elsewhere, Davis posted one line on Facebook: “Jeffrey ran, just so we clear.”
Shortly after the controversy began, three African-American administrative employees wrote a letter to museum leaders calling for the exhibit’s removal and Uslip’s resignation. Employees Lyndon Barrois Jr., De Andrea Nichols and Victoria Donaldson, said they were not themselves resigning, but would not perform various professional duties in support of Walker’s exhibition.
Nichols said she learned about Uslip’s resignation at the same time as the public and she has been asked not to comment.
“I can express that, in tandem with things in the letter, I look forward to the work that is to come,” Nichols said. “I think we have the right people in staff and in the community to make sure the next steps are better that what has transpired over the past few weeks.”
Ahead of Uslip’s resignation, CAM Executive Director Lisa Melandri made it clear during a public discussion on October 7 that the museum will stand by Walker’s controversial work.
“It was a very thoughtful and thought-through decision to not remove the work,” Melandri said during the discussion. “I personally wish to let the artist that we choose to show here understand that we have chosen their works and we put them up on these walls and that we will honor that commitment to them.”
CAM offered no details about Uslip’s new position, or if the black creative community’s outrage regarding the Walker’s exhibition factored into his decision to move on. Melandri did express awareness of the concerns faced in light of the exhibition – which remains on display (with modifications made to pre-warn patrons that it may be offensive to certain audiences) through the end of the year.
“This is a pivotal time for the museum and for our community, as we examine museum and curatorial best practices and apply those to everything we do at CAM,” Melandri said. “We look forward to our future, which will be informed not only by our new curator, but also by CAM staff and by our cultural and civic leaders.”
Uslip became chief curator at CAM in February 2014. His exhibitions include major shows by black artists, including Mark Bradford, “Receive Calls on Your Cell Phone From Jail”; Hurvin Anderson, “Backdrop”; and “Thy Kingdom Come” by Jesse Howard, one of Missouri’s seminal self-taught artists. Uslip organized the museum debuts of Laurie Simmons’s “Two Boys and The Love Doll” and Katharina Fritsch’s “Postcards”; he also presented first solo museum exhibitions by Arcangelo Sassolino, Mark Flood, Wyatt Kahn, Jon Rafman and Liat Yossifor.
Melandri said, “During his time at CAM, Jeffrey introduced museum audiences to a wide variety of perspectives, and brought a diverse array of artists and practices to CAM and St. Louis.”
