Antwaun Sargent (born 1988) is an American writer, editor and curator, living in New York City. His writing has appeared in ''The New York Times'', ''The New Yorker'' and various art publications. Sargent is the author of ''The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion'' (

Aperture In optics, the aperture of an optical system (including a system consisting of a single lens) is the hole or opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image o ...

) and the editor of ''Young, Gifted and Black: A New Generation of Artists'' ( DAP). He has championed Black art and fashion by young Black photographers, and has built a youth culture around it. He is also a director at

Gagosian Gallery The Gagosian Gallery is a modern and contemporary art gallery owned and directed by Larry Gagosian. The gallery exhibits some of the most well-known artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. As of 2024, Gagosian employs 300 people at 19 exhibiti ...

Career

Sargent was born and raised in Chicago. He became interested in art and photography from visiting museums at a very young age. He graduated from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

with a Bachelors of Science in Culture and Politics in 2011. He also holds a Masters Degree in Education from the

Relay Graduate School of Education Relay Graduate School of Education is a private graduate school for teachers in New York City and other locations in the United States including Atlanta, Baton Rouge, Chicago, Connecticut, Delaware, Denver, Houston, Indiana, Memphis, Nashville, ...

. Sargent started out teaching kindergarten in New York for

Teach for America Teach For America (TFA) is an American nonprofit organization whose stated mission is to "enlist, develop, and mobilize as many as possible of our nation's most promising future leaders to grow and strengthen the movement for educational excell ...

. He has written for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

Surface A surface, as the term is most generally used, is the outermost or uppermost layer of a physical object or space. It is the portion or region of the object that can first be perceived by an observer using the senses of sight and touch, and is ...

,'' and ''Interview''. He has also written essays for numerous museum and gallery publications and catalogues about Arthur Jafa, Derrick Adams, Ed Clark and Mickalene Thomas. He has lectured and spoken in public forums at the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

, The Studio Museum of Harlem,

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. He also appeared in the

Gucci Guccio Gucci S.p.A., doing business as Gucci ( , ), is an Italian Luxury goods, luxury fashion house based in Florence. Its product lines include handbags, ready-to-wear, footwear, accessories, and home decoration; and it licenses its name and ...

podcast and gave a TEDx Talk on the importance of Black art. In 2019 he published his first book and curated an accompanying exhibition at

Aperture Foundation Aperture Foundation is a nonprofit arts institution, founded in 1952 by Ansel Adams, Minor White, Barbara Morgan (photographer), Barbara Morgan, Dorothea Lange, Nancy Newhall, Beaumont Newhall, Ernest Louie, Melton Ferris, and Dody Warren. Their ...

, ''The New Black Vanguard,'' in which he showcased the works of 15 young black photographers, including Tyler Mitchell, Awol Erizku and Nadine Ijewere. Sargent shone light on how their works blur the boundaries between art, fashion, and photography. In 2020 he edited ''Young, Gifted and Black: A New Generation of Artists'', a book that explores the artistic production of artists including Erick Mack, Jordan Casteel and Kevin Beasley. He also curated the exhibition ''Just Pictures'' at projects+gallery that year in Saint Louis, Missouri. In early 2021 he was appointed one of the directors and curators of

, with a focus on the relationship between art, desires, identities, and representation.

Publications

*Sargent, Antwaun, et al. ''Young, Gifted and Black: A New Generation of Artists: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art''. D.A.P., 2020. *Sargent, Antwaun, Addy Campbell, et al. ''The New Black Vanguard: Photography Between Art and Fashion''. Illustrated, Aperture, 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sargent, Antwaun Living people American art critics Georgetown University alumni Writers from Chicago American art curators 1988 births