VAUGHN SPANN: LINEAGE is the first museum exhibition to focus exclusively on the artist’s abstract paintings, including examples from his ongoing series of Xs, Rainbows, Dalmatians, and Flags. He refuses to restrict himself to one visual language – abstraction or figuration – and prefers instead to give himself the freedom to flex in either direction, often both at once. Spann often speaks about his refusal to “choose one conversation:” “I wanted to tap into a lineage of making. . . a lineage that represented my heritage not just ethnically but materially.” He is mindful of the interrelatedness of his formal and conceptual concerns, and this reciprocal process is one of unifying elements of his practice.