The Empowerment You Need This Week, Courtesy of Tschabalala Self

Tschabalala Self’s towering collages are meditations on blackness, beauty, and femininity — and they were already plenty striking when the Harlem-born, Connecticut-based artist opened her second solo show at Thierry Goldberg gallery earlier last month. Now, as the exhibit, “Gut Feelings,” comes to a close at the end of a devastating roller-coaster of a week in America, they pack even more of a punch. Stretching up to six feet tall, in positions as regal as they are sexual, the women of color in Self’s canvases exude comfort, confidence, and cool – a vote of confidence in ourselves that is even more vital now in America under Donald Trump.