Over the last several decades, vibrant conversations have unfolded around existing constructions of identities—often seen as fixed, narrow categories—and a movement toward fluid and intersectional conceptions of the self and community, these discourses having greatly impacted both the theory and practice leading to a radical shift in contemporary aesthetics. Critical debates that destabilize fixed notions of identity have engendered new perspectives, particularly in work critiquing issues of essentialism, heterosexism, monolithic affiliation, and other culturally imposed limitations. This Special Issue seeks to magnify the questions of belongingness raised in contemporary art and generate a multicultural and interdisciplinary discussion that centers around visual practice as a crucial site of social and institutional commentary.

Argument

Over the last several decades, vibrant conversations have unfolded around existing constructions of identities—often seen as fixed, narrow categories—and a movement toward fluid and intersectional conceptions of the self and community, these discourses having greatly impacted both the theory and practice leading to a radical shift in contemporary aesthetics. Critical debates that destabilize fixed notions of identity have engendered new perspectives, particularly in work critiquing issues of essentialism, heterosexism, monolithic affiliation, and other culturally imposed limitations. This Special Issue seeks to magnify the questions of belongingness raised in contemporary art and generate a multicultural and interdisciplinary discussion that centers around visual practice as a crucial site of social and institutional commentary.

Approaches to this topic might take several forms, with specific interest in pieces grappling with the legacy of cultural trauma, “representational troubling” and the complex convergences of contemporary identities (queerness, gender, ethnicity, etc.) in new domains and across disciplines, fields, and visual media. We welcome observations regarding the possibilities, complications, and applications of identity across the spectrum of visual culture forms, as well as interpretations of artistic practice informed by critical frameworks such as post-blackness, post-Jewishness, liquid blackness, and Afro and Judeo-pessimism; contributions considering the complexities of identity and visuality from intersectional, comparative, and/or anti-essentialist perspectives are also welcomed. Additionally, contributors could consider the imaging of marginalized identities in relation to systems such as academia, the art market, and popular culture. Artists, curators, and other practitioners are invited to submit pieces for consideration, such as reflections on the impact of major exhibitions or series.

Prof. Dr. Derek Conrad Murray

Stacy Schwartz

Guest Editor

• Derek Conrad Murray, Professor of University of California at Santa Cruz and the former Editorial Board of Art Journal (CAA).
• Stacy Schwartz, Co-Guest Editor, History of Art and Visual Culture, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA, Doctoral Candidate

Submission guidelines

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Arts is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) will be waived for publication in this Special Issue. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2022.

For pre-submission inquiries, please email the Guest Editors: dcmurray@ucsc.edu and strschwa@ucsc.edu, and Special Issue editor Sylvia Hao in Arts: sylvia.hao@mdpi.com