Plains Art Museum is pleased to present Come, Go Back, Child, a solo exhibition of recent work by multi-media artist Aaron S. Coleman. This exhibition will be on view in the William and Anna Jane Schlossman Gallery from September 26, 2026 – May 30, 2027.
Coleman’s densely layered prints, sculptural assemblages, and mixed-media installations examine the entangled histories of race, religion, and power in the United States. He uses found imagery with historical references, pop culture graphics, and religious iconography to explore contemporary Black experiences and critique systems of white supremacy.
The title of this exhibition comes from the book Lose Your Mother: A Journey along the Atlantic Slave Route by Dr. Saidiya Hartman, which investigates the legacy of slavery and the erasure of her ancestry caused by being severed from her family, history, and home. She writes:
The spirit child shuttles back and forth between worlds of the living and the dead because of the stories not passed on, the ancestors not remembered, the things lost, and the debts not yet paid. The “come, go back, child” braves the wreckage of history and bears the burdens that others refuse.
Coleman’s work in Come, Go Back, Child braves the wreckage of history by quite literally using debris of the past. Segregation-era signage and racist caricatures are altered and presented in new contexts to confront historical and contemporary injustices. The artist’s jarring reinterpretation of racist memorabilia intentionally makes viewers feel uncomfortable as they grapple with the legacy of the United States of America’s dark past.
For this exhibit, Coleman created several new pieces in response to problematic objects in Plains Art Museum’s Permanent Collection. By inviting the artist to engage with racist caricatures, images of black face, and a photograph of a Ku Klux Klan figure, we underscore that this is our history too.
Coleman is a multi-media artist as well as an Associate Professor and Kenneth E. Tyler Endowed Chair at Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis. He received his MFA from Northern Illinois University in 2013. Coleman has participated in international residencies and exhibitions and received numerous awards for his work in printmaking, sculpture, and installation. He is the 2021 recipient of the Black Box Press Foundation Art as Activism Grant and was nominated for a 2022 Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship. His work can be found in the collections of the Janet Turner Print Museum, the Ino-cho Paper Museum, The Yekaterinburg Museum of Art, the National Library of France, and the Artist Printmaker/Photographer Research Archive at Texas Tech University, among others.
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 26, 6-8 PM, Free
Celebrate the opening of the exhibition Come, Go Back, Child, featuring a large range of recent works by Aaron Coleman. Enjoy light refreshments, meet the artist, and explore the largest exhibition of Coleman’s print work to date.
Workshop: Low-tech Screen Print: September 28-30, 6-9 PM, $315 / $252 members
Through DIY, low-tech, and budget-friendly methods, Aaron Coleman will guide students in transforming screen printing into something fluid, immediate, and surprisingly painterly. Register at plainsart.org/create.
Plains Art Museum is the only American Alliance of Museums accredited art museum in North Dakota. As of this past October, Plains also became the first and only Smithsonian Affiliate in the state. Plains’ mission is to connect people to art, and to each other, and is proud to offer free general admission, seven days a week.
For more information contact Danielle Gravon at dgravon@plainsart.org.