Inside Texas Artist Hakeem Adewumi’s Powerful Exhibition at the George Washington Carver Museum
“Seeing Further” uses photography, found objects and family history to reflect on emancipation, memory and freedom beyond Juneteenth
This Juneteenth, visual artist Hakeem Adewumi asserts that the nation’s newest federal holiday is not just a celebration — it’s an ethos. Adewumi’s solo exhibition, “Seeing Further,” builds on his personal history and Texas folklore to carve out “breathing room for contemplation.” Whereas the nation at large might simply be enjoying a long summer weekend, Adewumi insists on the importance of incorporating Juneteenth’s original message of emancipation into “a daily devotion.”
“I create encounters that blur the boundaries between history and myth, the visible and the unseen,” writes Adewumi in his artist statement. “I approach Juneteenth as an ongoing encounter with freedom: a pursuit toward a truth that is complex, unfinished and deeply personal.”
Tall Texas tales
“Seeing Further” showcases an evolution in Adewumi’s artistic practice, expanding from exhibiting mostly photography to assembling sculptures and site-specific installations. Though image-making remains a core tenet of his work, “Seeing Further” is less of a collection of photos and more of an encapsulated realm that contextualizes the everyday as supernatural.
“Juneteenth is being anticipated in a way that feels really good across the country. What I do see though, is a lack of reverence,” says Adewumi.
Much like emancipation, the exhibition is heard before it is seen. A soundscape produced in collaboration with Corey De’Juan Sherrard Jr., a 2024 alumnus of the George Washington Carver Museum’s artist residency, beckons viewers deeper into the gallery as the heartbeat of the show. “Seeing Further” knows well that everything is bigger in Texas, expanding photographs, found objects and even written declarations into larger-than-life dimensions.
Throughout the exhibition, Adewumi weaves portraits of his subjects, many of whom are his ancestors, with weathered farming equipment, branches and vines he laboriously gathered on his family’s generational land in East Texas. The thoughtfulness of Adewumi’s assemblage layers memory with myth, demonstrating the inextricable relationship between land and the people who tend it. Though scale and materiality are used in bold measure, the exhibition still presents a clear restraint that belies the clarity of Adewumi’s message.
“There’s an expansion of Juneteenth that feels like it has to sacrifice its own integrity, of its uniqueness to geography and the brilliance of the folklore that goes with that,” says Adewumi. “(Juneteenth is) the truth of what it means to be delayed. That deserves its own weight.”
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Returning to Austin
Though Adewumi is currently based in Dallas, there is a sense of homecoming in “Seeing Further.” The artist has roots in Austin, including his degree in African and African Diaspora Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and his first solo exhibition, “Hidden in Plain Sight,” which opened at the George Washington Carver Museum in 2017. During his five years as an Austinite, Adewumi was directly involved in advocacy for the Black community in East Austin, not only as a scholar and artist but also as a professional. An internship at the Greater Austin Black Chamber of Commerce turned into his first full-time role after graduation as special projects and communications manager, which then formed the foundation for a career of “very specific work around identity, Blackness and creativity.”
“It feels good to revisit conversations, relationships and spaces — how they’ve also matured and grown along with me,” says Adewumi. “There are hidden treasures to unlock in different places. You have to be led into those areas. And I was definitely led to Austin.”
In alignment with Adewumi’s intention to contemplate, the George Washington Carver Museum is hosting the artist talk from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, June 18, as part of its annual Juneteenth programming.
“What I’m finding out from the opening is that people have so many stories to share,” says Adewumi. “Everyone wants to locate themselves and their families and identities within this work and do the same thing. That’s the part that feels really generative. I’m looking forward to how this becomes something that we can continue to ripple out.”
“Seeing Further” is on view at the George Washington Carver Museum through Oct. 10.
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