Commissioned in partnership with Carolina Nitsch Contemporary Art, exclusive series of works explore history, place, and memory while supporting the triennial’s mission

Nari Ward, *OH FREEDOM!,* 2024-25, *Cast bronze,* 19 1/2 x 57 x 3 inches, Edition of 12, with 3 AP, Incised with initials, date, edition number, foundry mark Published by Carolina Nitsch for Prospect, New Orleans © Nari Ward Studio. Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London, and GALLERIA CONTINUA.

New Orleans — February 26, 2025 — Prospect New Orleans and Carolina Nitsch Contemporary Art are pleased to present a new series of limited-edition works by Nari Ward and Kevin Beasley. Part of Prospect’s ongoing limited edition program, these exclusive works extend both artists’ explorations of history, place, and cultural memory, offering new opportunities for engagement while directly supporting Prospect’s mission to champion contemporary art in dialogue with New Orleans’ vibrant cultural landscape.

These works can be purchased directly through Prospect New Orleans or Carolina Nitsch, either online via their respective websites or by contacting their sales teams for personalized assistance.

Prospect’s limited editions program reflects its longstanding commitment to artistic innovation and the evolution of its triennial mission. Through an ongoing collaboration with Carolina Nitsch Contemporary Art, Prospect has produced special editions by former triennial artists, with proceeds benefiting the organization. Prior to commissioning Ward and Beasley, Prospect partnered with Carrie Mae Weems and Ebony G. Patterson on past editions and is currently working with Firelei Báez on an upcoming release to be announced soon.

“Prospect’s limited edition program is central to the organization’s legacy and a perfect showcase of our relationships with artists,” said Prospect Executive Director Nick Stillman. “This is the way to take some of Prospect home with you.”

Nari Ward’s sculptural works employ language, architecture, and found materials to explore themes of racism, power, national identity, and collective memory. OH FREEDOM! is the artist’s first project of its kind in cast bronze, expanding upon Ward’s ongoing use of shoelaces as material. Comprised of nearly 400 different shoelaces cast in bronze and welded to a plaque, the work pushes the possibilities of bronze casting. ‘Oh, freedom’ is a post-Civil War African-American freedom song associated with the Civil Rights Movement.

Kevin Beasley, *Module 9*, 2024, Raw Virginia cotton, polyurethane resin, fiberglass, aluminum, plywood, walnut, MDF, HDPE, metal wax, amplifier, custom speakers, cables, fasteners, 44 min. 48 sec. 2-channel recording on glass crystal USB drive, 59 ½ x 11 ¾ x 17 1/16 in (151.1 x 29.8 x 43.3 cm), Edition of 9 unique variants, Signed certificate, Produced by Carolina Nitsch for Prospect New Orleans. Courtesy the artist and Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York.

Kevin Beasley’s Module 9 consists of a fully functional console with custom speakers playing an original sound work. Working in sculpture, sound, video, and installation, Beasley’s works incorporate process art, assemblage, and performance. Module 9 is a hybrid work that combines disparate materials and references. The aluminum and wood console encases speaker baffles made with raw Virginia cotton and polyurethane resin; a composite material rife with both personal and historical associations that the artist works with frequently.

The console plays a 44-minute, 2-channel electronic sound work, much of which is ambient, with punctuations of percussive moments that enliven a dynamic contrapuntal pressure radiating beneath.

Both Nari Ward and Kevin Beasley have played pivotal roles in Prospect’s triennial history. Ward participated in Prospect.1 and Prospect.5, has served on Prospect’s board, and was honored at the Prospect.6 Gala. Beasley’s ambitious project for Prospect.5 unfolded across two venues. The works—rooted in material transformation, land use, memory, and resistance—echo the themes that have shaped Prospect since its inception.

Ward’s longstanding engagement with race, power, and collective memory was evident in his Prospect.1 installation, Diamond Gym: Action Network (2008), which transformed Battle Ground Baptist Church into a space for community dialogue and activation. For Prospect.5: Yesterday we said tomorrow, his Battleground Beacon reimagined police floodlights—symbols of surveillance—as megaphones amplifying voices of resistance. In collaboration with Andres Levin and Moisés Sacal Hadid, Ward layered speeches from Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., James Baldwin, Amiri Baraka, Shirley Chisholm, Cornel West, and Amanda Gorman with ambient sounds and Buddhist chants by Tina Turner, creating a sonic intervention against historical erasure.

Beasley’s work for Prospect.5: Yesterday we said tomorrow explored land ownership, memory, and materiality, stemming from his purchase of a plot in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward—deeply tied to Black history and resilience. His project, shaped by time spent in the city and an ongoing engagement with land stewardship, culminated in a series of intricate, hand-drawn translations of photographs documenting these sites at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC). Through his meticulous process, ordinary landscapes became sites of reflection, agency, and reclamation, underscoring land’s dual role as both a physical asset and a conceptual space of resistance and community.

These limited editions by Ward and Beasley offer collectors and institutions the opportunity to acquire works that engage with histories of resistance, identity, and transformation. By expanding these practices into a new format, the project reinforces Prospect’s commitment to supporting artists while broadening access to their work.

For acquisition inquiries, please visit www.prospectneworleans.org or www.carolinanitsch.com. Inquiries can also be directed to info@carolinanitsch.com or +1 (212) 463-0610.

About Kevin Beasley
Kevin Beasley lives and works in New York. He was born in 1985 in Lynchburg, Virginia. He received his MFA from Yale University in 2012. His works and performances have been featured in exhibitions at museums including the Whitney Museum of American Art; The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; The Studio Museum in Harlem; and Prospect.5, New Orleans, among many others.

About Nari Ward

Nari Ward (born in 1963 in St. Andrew, Jamaica; currently based in New York) is renowned for his sculptural installations made from discarded materials he collects from his neighborhood. His work incorporates objects like baby strollers, shopping carts, bottles, doors, televisions, cash registers, and shoelaces, among others. Ward reimagines these found items through striking juxtapositions, imbuing them with complex, metaphorical meanings that engage with social and political issues such as race, poverty, and consumerism. He deliberately leaves his work open to interpretation, inviting viewers to draw their own conclusions.

One of his best-known works, Amazing Grace, was produced during his 1993 residency at The Studio Museum in Harlem, in response to the AIDS crisis and drug epidemic of the early 1990s. For this large installation, Ward collected over 365 discarded baby strollers, often used by people experiencing homelessness in Harlem to carry their belongings. He bound them together with twisted fire hoses in an abandoned fire station. The installation was accompanied by a recording of gospel singer Mahalia Jackson’s Amazing Grace playing on a loop, with lyrics that speak of redemption and transformation, evoking a sense of hope and optimism. As with much of his work, this piece reflects themes tied to the materials, community, and environment in which Ward worked. The installation has been recreated at various locations, including the New Museum’s Studio 231 series in 2013, the New Museum Studio in 2019, and multiple sites across Europe. With each new context, the meaning of the work shifts as different communities interpret the found objects in their own unique ways.

About Carolina Nitsch
Carolina Nitsch actively publishes editions in all media with a growing roster of internationally recognized artists, ranging from traditional prints and monotypes, to sculpture editions and large installations. It aims to encourage artists to explore new possibilities and media via its large network of printers and fabricators. Nitsch founded her business in 2000 after ten years of working with artists as director of Brooke Alexander Editions and now continues to maintain a focused inventory of significant 1960s editions with an emphasis on minimal and conceptual art. Carolina Nitsch Contemporary Art is also known as the principal dealer of the graphic oeuvres of numerous artists including Louise Bourgeois, Donald Judd, and Thomas Schütte. Furthermore, the gallery has been entrusted to produce editioned projects for the New Museum of Contemporary Art since 2003 and the Whitney Museum of American Art since 2008. Nitsch serves as Vice President on the board of directors of the IFPDA (International Fine Print Dealers Association), as well as Printed Matter, Inc. and is currently expert for the Edition Sector at Art Basel.

About Prospect New Orleans

Prospect is a citywide contemporary art triennial and the only exhibition of its kind in the US with a track record approaching 20 years. Every three years, Prospect invites artists from around the world to create projects in a wide variety of venues spread throughout New Orleans. For residents and visitors alike, Prospect is an invitation to experience the city through the eyes of artists. The organization’s most recent triennial, Prospect.6: The Future is Present, The Harbinger Is Home ran from November 2, 2024 - February 2, 2025. For more information visit: www.prospect6.org.