Located on the 2nd Floor as a part of Colorado in the Present Tense
Narkita Gold began her Black in Denver series in 2018. Featuring 100 portraits of those who identify as Black and who live in the Denver community, MCA Denver presents the entirety of Gold's photographic and text-based project. Launched in part by her relocation from Nashville, Tennessee, Black in Denver reflects Gold's realization about the uniqueness of Denver's Black community, including a wide spectrum of Black self-expression. Beyond trying to capture Black life here, she also wanted to understand her own existence in Denver. Visually connecting her individual subjects through the vibrant and bold colors against which each figure stands, she composes a mosaic of experiences and narratives. Gold vividly centers a historically marginalized community in Denver. Celebrating the immense richness of Denver's Black community, Black in Denver is a joyful testament to what makes Denver unique and serves as a prompt for further recognizing and honoring such singular voices.
Visit Narkita Gold's official Black in Denver website
Take a quick, 60-second look at the exhibition with MCA Denver's Ellen Bruss Senior Curator, Miranda Lash with Art in a Flash with Miranda Lash.
For this virtual program, Narkita Gold invites five of the Black in Denver project participants to join her for a conversation about the transformative power of and relation between love, authenticity, and freedom.
With special guests Zhalisa Clarke, JaLisa Williams, Representative Leslie Herod, Solwazi Johnson, and Marquis Tate.
As part of the Black in Denver exhibition at MCA Denver, Narkita Gold selected six of the participants to record an audio snippet that showcases their unique passions and talents.
Narkita Gold was born in 1987 in Nashville, Tennessee. She has been honing her skills in digital photography since 2009. Originally a public relations professional, Gold blends her gift of photography with storytelling, creating a perfect marriage of her two passions. Her first creative endeavor, Black in Denver, is a portrait and interview series that takes a critical look at identity, specifically at small Black communities, solitude, and the evolution of the self. Gold’s approach includes participant observation, empathy interviews, and surveying both locals and transplants to gain a better understanding of Black life in Denver. The artist is passionate about people, arts and culture, and finds inspiration in the human experience, our purpose here, city life, and architecture. She lives and works in Denver.
