Thu May 1 - Sun July 13, 2025

Isaac Julien: I Dream a World

Over the last 25 years, pioneering artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien (b. 1960, London) has created immersive, multichannel video installations. Celebrated for his poetic visual narratives, Julien explores power, politics, and personal experience through the lens of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Featuring 10 major video installations made between 1999 and 2022, alongside select early single-channel films including his iconic Looking for Langston (1989), this exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of Julien's work in a museum setting and his first retrospective in the United States. The works' themes range from global migration to the collection and appropriation of African artists and art by Western museums to the celebration of cultural figures who overcame racial oppression. Shot across Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, the Americas, and Asia, Julien's works untangle the complex web of post-colonial conditions that has shaped the lives of individuals and societies across the globe.



Image Credit: Isaac Julien, North Star (Lessons of the Hour) (detail), 2019. Framed photograph on gloss inkjet paper mounted on aluminum, 63 x 84 in. (160 x 213.3 cm) © Isaac Julien. Courtesy the artist, Victoria Miro, London and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco
Over the last 25 years, pioneering artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien (b. 1960, London) has created immersive, multichannel video installations. Celebrated for his poetic visual narratives, Julien explores power, politics, and personal experience through the lens of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Featuring 10 major video installations made between 1999 and 2022, alongside select early single-channel films including his iconic Looking for Langston (1989), this exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of Julien's work in a museum setting and his first retrospective in the United States. The works' themes range from global migration to the collection and appropriation of African artists and art by Western museums to the celebration of cultural figures who overcame racial oppression. Shot across Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, the Americas, and Asia, Julien's works untangle the complex web of post-colonial conditions that has shaped the lives of individuals and societies across the globe.



Image Credit: Isaac Julien, North Star (Lessons of the Hour) (detail), 2019. Framed photograph on gloss inkjet paper mounted on aluminum, 63 x 84 in. (160 x 213.3 cm) © Isaac Julien. Courtesy the artist, Victoria Miro, London and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco
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Art, Museums

Date/Times:
  • Thu May 1 (9:30am - 5:15pm)
  • Fri May 2 (9:30am - 5:15pm)
  • Sat May 3 (9:30am - 5:15pm)
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de Young Museum 245 Upcoming Events
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