What happens when you upend an image? Applying this very simple question to an image of NBA Hall of Famer or NBA great players dribbling a ball, revealed their shadows as a reflection. Noel W. Anderson is thinking about this shadow the way author Ralph Ellison in Invisible Man and theorist Franz Fanon discuss the non-being of black people’s being like a shadow. This work is about realizing a certain kind of spiritual, supernatural, magical power of black male subjects and bodies through the process of inversion.

From tattered old rugs to mechanically-produced tapestries, Anderson embeds a spectrum of fibers with found images and physical usage just long enough to fray their edges and challenge their legibility. Working with a team of weavers, Anderson appropriates, manipulates, and weaves images into a series of tapestries. Upon completion, he labors over each thread, distressing, dyeing, and collaging the weavings. Anderson suspends a number of mediums evident in his works including, photography, painting, printmaking, and sculpture. The masking of these mediums alludes to historical subjugation of black bodies, as well as Anderson’s treatment of subjects, found images, and meaning. Distressing and dyes are techniques employed to further complicate the viewing experience. In some instances, images blur as the tapestry fibers optically blend from distressing. In other cases, images dissolve and emerge from fields of ambient color. The exhibited works attempt to locate an elusive black essence by way of images which, for Anderson, “evoke moments where racial recognition is heightened,” but resolution is deferred. Anderson highlights a contingent state of identity, the plurality of “blackness,” and encounters that are as poignant as they are partial.”

Noel W. Anderson, originally from Louisville, KY, now resides in Harlem, NYC, where he continues to develop his artistic practice. He holds an MFA in Printmaking from Indiana University and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University. Anderson recently participated in the 15th Gwangju Biennale. His work has been featured in numerous prestigious institutions, including the Berlin Biennale; Frac-Sud Cité de l’art contemporain, Marseille; [MAC] – Musée D’art Contemporain, in collaboration with the MuCEM – Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée, Marseille, France; KMAC, Louisville; Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Austria; Shirley Fiterman Art Center, New York; and the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI, among others. Anderson has received several notable accolades, including the NYFA Artist Fellowship Grant, the Jerome Camargo Prize, and a papermaking residency at Dieu Donné. His work is held in the permanent collections of the International Center of Photography, New York; The Studio Museum, Harlem; Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN; Hermes Collection; A.C. Hudgins Collections, NY; Bernard Lumpkin Collection, NY; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, MI; Mudam Luxembourg; The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, IL; and Frac-Sud Cité de l’art contemporain, Marseille, France, among others. Currently on view at the University Art Museum, Albany, NY, Noel W. Anderson’s Black Excellence marks the artist’s largest solo museum exhibition to date. Running through April 3, 2026, the show features tapestries, video works, and works on paper that explore themes of Black success, labor, and performance.