The 104th Annual Exhibition, Breath/Breadth: Contemporary American Black Male Identity, explores wide-ranging visual expressions, defying the impulse to hone in on singular, cohesive definitions because it is precisely the impulse to categorize that encourages racial profiling. While focusing on a particular demographic, Breath/Breadth demonstrates the complexity of this demographic. Artists include Radcliffe Bailey, Kevin Beasley, Mark Bradford, Nick Cave, Todd Gray, Rashid Johnson, Titus Kaphar, Toyin Odutola, Hank Willis Thomas and Kahinde Wiley.

Breath/Breadth aims to be intentional about revealing diversity, while also making reference to recent racial strife embodied in the concept of “breath” as it refers to the now very charged quote “I can’t breathe” resonating with the current dialogue over how we identify and value black lives. At the same time, our collective concept of breath is poetic and meditative, ultimately common, life-sustaining, non-racial.

The 104^th Annual Exhibition, Breath/Breadth, will be on view at the Maier Museum through Dec. 11, 2015. Also on view in an adjacent gallery through Oct. 10, 2015, is a documentary-styled video installation, Question Bridge: Black Males, featuring black men of various backgrounds asking and responding to questions about life in America.