Glenn Ligon Collaborates with Young Creatives from Artistic Noise, New York
Glenn Ligon Collaborates with Young Creatives from Artistic Noise, New York
On the occasion of ‘Glenn Ligon. late at night, early in the morning, at noon,’ on view at Hauser & Wirth New York, 18th Street, and as part of the gallery’s ongoing learning initiatives, artist Glenn Ligon collaborated with participants from Artistic Noise, an organization committed to enriching the lives of system-impacted youth through art making.
Ligon invited 12 creatives between the ages of 14 and 22 from Artistic Noise’s Art and Entrepreneurship program to take part in a self-portrait printing project. The project kicked off with a visit to Hauser & Wirth 18th Street, where Ligon welcomed the participants to his exhibition. The young artists listened as Ligon spoke about his journey, from growing up in the South Bronx neighborhood of New York to becoming a working artist, and then shared their own insights about his work, focusing on the artist’s use of text, the significance of the color blue and his blurring techniques.
The group visited The Studio Museum in Harlem to experience Ligon’s work on view including ‘Give us a Poem’ (2007) and ‘Self Portrait at Eleven Years Old’ (2004). Participants then used the Studio Museum’s workshop space as a photography studio to take digital self-portraits. Later that week, the group began the first of eight artmaking sessions at Artistic Noise’s studio space in Harlem, layering their own self-portraits using a mix of cyanotype, oil pastels, oil sticks and charcoal, applying and then altering words or symbols that personally spoke to them.
‘It was cool to show the youth an artist who came from the same background as they do, a successful artist from the same background. The kids definitely gravitated towards the ways Glenn spoke about his work. The Artistic Noise artists liked how he talked about his work, and the way he shared his story about growing up here in New York.’
—Joe Goodwin, Artistic Noise Teaching Artist
The participants’ artwork will go on view at the Artistic Noise youth art showcase in Harlem on July 17th, 2026. All the work made at Artistic Noise over the past year, including during the collaboration with Glenn Ligon, will be on sale with 100% of the proceeds going towards the young artists who created the work. Follow @artistic_noise for updates and more details.
About Artistic Noise
For the past 25 years, Harlem-based nonprofit Artistic Noise has created visual arts and therapeutic programs in collaboration with young people whose lives have been impacted by the juvenile court system, foster care system, and mental health care systems. Via courthouse-based alternatives to incarceration programs, drop-in therapy programs, and large-scale mural projects, Artistic Noise supports young artists in their community to express themselves creatively, work collaboratively, build community, manifest visions of their futures, and develop a variety of leadership skills in the process. Artistic Noise’s paid Art & Entrepreneurship program works to develop the creative abilities of system-impacted young people ages 14–22 years old through an exploration of a variety of hands-on artmaking techniques.
Learn more about Glenn Ligon, Artistic Noise, and Hauser & Wirth’s Learning initiatives.
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