“Ron Norsworthy draws upon ‘the shared imagery of American pictures” to visualize the disjunctures between the American Dream and the Black, lived experience in America. His use of color form and line reminds Black people of our innate beauty, and his use of buildable plywood layers–that place archival photographs, cultural ephemera, contemporary objects and speculative gestures in dialogue–affirms our enduring strength. In Sold (We Had To Deal With What Has Passed), 2023, he reimagines the [foyer] of Ralph and Fanny Ellison, critiquing photography’s role in selling an unattainable lifestyle to generations of Black families. A FOR SALE sign marked SOLD, and a staircase leading ambiguously skyward, expose opportunities foreclosed by structural racism, underscoring the artifice of the American Dream”

Nico Okoro, “Borderlands: Soft Margins, Hard Truths”, catalogue essay, 2026