From the collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, a new survey titled Turn the volume up! considers American democracy and freedom of speech through art as an agent of change. Organized by the Nasher, the exhibition brings together work by Spider Martin, Kara Walker, the Guerilla Girls, Carrie Mae Weems, Kiki Smith, Bruce Davidson, and many more. It opens on August 27 and continues through July 11, 2027.
Five themes, many voices
The presentation is structured across five areas—Remarks, Organize, Records, Dissents, and Petitions—to foreground how artists deploy photographs, sculptures, installations, paintings, and more to shape public conversation and prompt civic engagement. Spider Martin’s dramatic documentation of Freedom Marches during the Civil Rights Movement appears alongside Kara Walker’s probing take on U.S. history and racial stereotypes. The Guerilla Girls’ 1980s posters, pasted around Manhattan to expose the lack of representation of women artists in visual art and across popular culture, underscore the exhibition’s focus on tactics of visibility and advocacy.
Bruce Davidson—renowned for illuminating social inequality in visceral photographs, from the Jim Crow South to impoverished neighborhoods in New York City—joins the dialogue with images from Time of Change. Carol Summers’ Kill for Peace, created for the portfolio Artists and Writers Protest Against the War in Viet Nam, wields a bold red “X” over a photograph of a Vietnamese mother and her children as an anti-war demand.
- Kara Walker, Confederate Prisoners Being Conducted from Jonesborough to Atlanta from Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) (2005), offset lithograph and screenprint on paper, edition 35/35, 39 x 53 inches.
- Spider Martin, Dr. King Speaks to the Crowd of 25,000 people at the March’s End (1965), archival digital print on exhibition fiber paper, edition 2/3, 24 x 35 1/2 inches.
- Bruce Davidson, Time of Change (1963–1965), resin-coated print, 8 x 11 inches; and Time of Change (1962), gelatin silver print, 10 x 8 inches.
- Sam Durant, …For People Who Refuse to Knuckle Down (2004), steel and wood, 90 x 82 x 82 inches.
- Carlos Vega, Who is Malala (2016), mixed media including oil and etched lead on panel, 62 3/8 x 52 3/8 x 2 5/8 inches.
- Thomas Hirschhorn, CNN-CHAIN (2002), cardboard, gold wrapping paper, and tape; edition 3/50, 98 1/2 x 31 1/2 x 4 inches.
- Peter Williams, Incarnation (2019), oil-based enamel, oil and graphite on canvas, 60 x 72 inches.
- Carol Summers, Kill for Peace (1967), screenprint on paper, edition 81/100, 23 1/2 × 19 1/4 inches.
Throughout the run, works will rotate in and out so visitors encounter a wide range from the museum’s holdings related to social justice and community organizing. Everything Now All at Once also continues through November 1.
Turn the volume up! gathers distinct visual strategies—archival image, poster, print, sculpture, and painting—into a concentrated study of how artists record dissent, organize communities, and make their remarks public.
