The National Academy of Design is pleased to present Whose America?, an exhibition that examines the United States’ relationship to the history of ‘America’ in all of its pluralities. Drawing upon its varied and eclectic roster of National Academicians, those with vastly different experiences of diaspora from throughout the Americas, Whose America? deconstructs the many regional, political and social influences that have shaped the United States’ cultural landscape today. As the inaugural exhibition of the National Academy’s year-long bicentennial celebration, Whose America? draws on the Academy’s history as one of the founding arts institutions in the United States and reflects the institution's commitment to looking critically at its own past.
Organized around a series of fundamental yet seldom asked questions—who is America?, who does it belong to? and who writes its history?—the exhibition brings together a wide and multidisciplinary range of works that mount a collective challenge to the idea that ‘America’ has ever truly been synonymous with the United States. In place of such a totalizing perspective, Whose America? draws upon the pluralistic wellspring of experience by artists hailing from countries throughout North America, Central and South America and the Caribbean, all of which are underpinned by Indigenous people’s historic ties to the land that precede the founding of this country. The exhibition will feature work by dozens of artists from countries including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Puerto Rico.