Our first and last love

Both personal and universal, Harris’ oeuvre weaves together legacies of family dynamics, queer histories and Afro-cosmopolitanism.

Gathering photographs, assemblages, video installations and archival selections from his celebrated and lesser-known series, Our first and last love charts new connections across the artistic practice of New York–based artist Lyle Ashton Harris (born 1965). Informed by an adolescence that unfolded in New York City and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, as well as several years spent living in Ghana, Harris explores the complexities of African and African American collective identity while forging his own personal narrative as a Black queer man.