Key Takeaways
- Designer Tremaine Emory is opening a retrospective exhibition, 'Denim Tears from the Pool of Black Genius,' at the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia, running from September 14, 2026 through January 11, 2027.
- Curated by Daniel S. Palmer, the show traces Emory’s Denim Tears practice since 2019 and places his fashion work in dialogue with canonical Black artists like Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Alma Thomas, and Faith Ringgold as a "Pool of Black Genius."
- Alongside Emory’s own pieces — including the vintage Levi's that sparked Denim Tears — the exhibition features works by collaborators such as Arthur Jafa, Hank Willis Thomas, and David Hammons, underscoring his use of clothing as conceptual art to reach audiences beyond the traditional art world.
Designer Tremaine Emory will next month open a retrospective exhibition in his birth state of Georgia.
Organized by SCAD Museum of Art chief curator Daniel S. Palmer, the 'Denim Tears from the Pool of Black Genius' exhibition opens September 14 at the museum in Savannah, Georgia and runs through January 11, 2027.
The show looks back on Emory's creative impetus since founding Denim Tears in 2019 and places it in conversation with a canon of legendary Black visual artists.
The exhibition's animating concept, the "Pool of Black Genius," draws on works from the SCAD Museum of Art permanent collection by Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Alma Thomas, and Faith Ringgold, among others. Rather than treating these as background context, the show positions them as cultural touchstones, with Emory bringing fashion into the fray as a form of conceptual art.
"The art world, as cool or credible as it is, doesn't have a lot of access to the people that I wanted to reach," Emory recently told Highsnobiety. "I felt I could get this message out and get these ideas out to more people through clothing."
Alongside Emory's own work, the exhibition features contemporary pieces by artists he has collaborated with and been in dialogue with, including Arthur Jafa, Hank Willis Thomas, and David Hammons.
One of the show's more archival pieces is a pair of Emory's own well-worn vintage Levi's, which originally prompted the creation of Denim Tears.
The exhibition opens four months after Emory's Spring/Summer 2026 "Libertas" collection, modeled by Ms. Lauryn Hill. The designers Fall/Winter 2026 collection pays tribute to the late Vogue editor André Leon Talley, who spent decades championing Black designers and the African diaspora.
