The present work is from Carrie Mae Weems' seminal and most sought-after series, "The Kitchen Table." Weems explores the complexities of domestic life, identity, and relationships through a sequence of staged photographs centered around a kitchen table, addressing universal themes of intimacy, gender roles, and the Black experience, resonating with viewers by capturing personal narratives within a familiar yet charged setting.

Carrie Mae Weems is a contemporary American artist. Working in photography and video, her work confronts issues of racism, gender, politics, and identity, particularly those in African American communities. Weems is particularly interested in using the visual language of documentary photography, blending it with narrative fictional scenes to challenge her audience’s preconceptions and to force political and social change. Born on April 20, 1952 in Portland, OR, she went on to study dance with the Postmodern dancer Anna Halprin, eventually receiving her MFA from the University of California San Diego. In 2014, Weems was the subject of a major retrospective at the Guggenheim in New York titled “Three Decades of Photography and Video,” which notably featured her early Kitchen Table Series (1990), a groundbreaking investigation of African American stereotypes. Weems’ work can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, among others. The artist lives and works between Syracuse and Brooklyn, NY.