At the center of Awol Erizku’s first solo exhibition at Night Gallery hangs a rotating disco ball in the shape of the iconic Nefertiti Bust. It reflects light onto the assemblages and paintings that line the colorful walls, each of which serves a similar artistic purpose—the empowerment of Black Americans. In the same vein as Afrofuturism, Awol imagines a hopeful future and reinterprets the past with his politically relevant offerings. References to different time periods throughout Black history are all present in the space and collapse in on our contemporary moment.

The exhibition, entitled Menace II Society, shares a name with a 1993 film portraying the life of a teen dealing with gang violence in the projects of Los Angeles. The smaller paintings in the gallery space are drawn from the Black Panther Coloring Book, published in 1968, which tells the visual story of Africans that come to America and murder policemen. The excessively violent imagery, presumably aimed at a child audience, was deemed inappropriate by the Black Panther Party, but was nonetheless circulated by the FBI as anti-Black Panther propaganda. The original Nefertiti Bust dates back much further, to 1345 B.C. Past, present, and future collide for Awol, who thoughtfully re-contextualizes a history fraught with institutionalized racism.

Awol plays with symbolism and very direct, explicit iconography throughout the show. The number 12, representing the police force is crossed out across his vibrantly colored assemblages. Corrugated metal and basketball hoops are reminiscent of urban landscapes. Implementing a cohesive color scheme, Awol has painted in the images from the Black Panther Coloring Book on plywood, giving them new life despite their former use by the FBI as a tool of oppression.

Outside of the contemporary fine art world, Awol has garnered attention for producing what is now the most liked post on Instagram, the Beyonce (wearing Palomo Spain) portrait revealing her newborn twins. The dignity and grandeur with which he portrayed Beyonce is not so far removed from the intention of his current show at Night Gallery. The now legendary photograph will go down in art history just as The Nefertiti Bust did centuries ago. With strong political statements that feel necessary in our society’s contemporary moment, Awol seeks to compensate for the lack of black representation in art and, in his jarringly refreshing way, bring the issues that affect his community to the fore.