Flux

Robert Pruitt creates work that examines Black identity, and, more specifically, notions of African American liberation from social, economic, and psychological constraints. He explores self-determination and the notion of an idealized Black reality—an Afrofuturistic, utopian existence. In "Flux", a pregnant woman sits on a boombox, her body adorned with timekeepers and talismans, as if ready and waiting to embark on a journey. The devices around her neck—including a circular clock and an African drum—relate to time, alluding to Pruitt’s fascination with time travel and a people’s ability to journey to a better place. On her right arm is an Akan Sankofa bird from Ghana, which symbolizes the need to look to the past to borrow what can help you make progress in the present and future.

Pruitt’s influences are vast, drawing from science fiction, comic books, Black power ideology, and a romanticized notion of pre-colonial Africa. He also pays homage to pioneering visual artists like Charles White and Barkley L. Hendricks, and the cosmic philosophy of musicians such as Sun Ra and Parliament-Funkadelic.