The Parsons Benefit is an annual celebration of the importance and impact of fashion, design and the arts. The event highlights the work of the world renowned institute’s fashion, design and performing arts students, bringing together an esteemed group of industry leaders and Parsons alumni — while (and most importantly), raising scholarship funds for students. This week the 72nd annual Parsons Benefit took place at Pier 17, honoring the best of the fashion, design and art worlds. Global rap-star Travis Scott, artist and Pyer Moss founder Kerby Jean Raymond, Macy’s Chairman & CEO Jeff Gennette, and former fashion executive Angela Ahrendts DBE were among some the titans of industries honored. Iconic multi-disciplinary artist and image maker, Carrie Mae Weems was also honored. Weems has spent the last 40 years redefining the cannon, documenting the experience of Black femmes, challenging systemic violence against Black bodies and the consequences of power, so it only makes sense that she’d be honored for her groundbreaking work — which plays a pivotal role in today’s world.
Weems is often considered one of the greatest living contemporary artist, with an impressive body of work spanning four decades. She was the first African-American woman to have a retrospective at the Guggenheim museum, was a MacArthur Fellowship Genius Grant recipient, and in 2012, was presented with one of the first US Department of State’s Medals of Arts in recognition for her commitment to the State Department’s Art in Embassies program. She’s iconic through and through! Through her work, she’s reinvented the way an image is made as well as the way the viewer approaches the image. There’s a familiar essence to a Carrie Mae Weems image. They all feel vaguely familiar, not unlike images that we might see in our grandparents home or in a childhood book. She is an incredibly gifted storyteller only her canvas is through imagery. Throughout her expansive career, and disruptive body of work — that often pulls from her experience as a Black woman — she’s crafted a complex body of art through the use of photographs, text, fabric, audio, digital images, mixed media, video, and instillation.
Below GRAZIA takes a minute to explore some of the iconic works of the prolific artist and image maker and recent Parsons Benefit honoree.
‘the kitchen table series’
‘Born With a Veil You Became Root Worker Juju Mama Voodoo Queen Hoodoo Doctor’
‘All the boys’
‘Mourning from the series Constructing History’
‘People of a Darker Hue,’ part of Strategies of Engagement series
Blue note series
Family Pictures and Stories, 1981–1982
