Gee Horton’s Chapter 4: In Another Lifetime unfolds across two galleries of the CAC, continuing a new chapter of an ever-evolving body of work.

Through large-scale photorealist drawings, photography, collage, video and installation, Horton reflects on Black masculinity, generational memory, and childhood, exploring themes of safety, vulnerability, and the fragile boundary between freedom and protection.

In his preceding work—Chapter 3: Be Home Before the Streetlights...—Horton examined the call to return home. Chapter 4: In Another Lifetime descends into what we inherit once we arrive.

This narrative-driven exhibition features Horton’s loosely autobiographical account of the struggles of Freeman Little, a 37-year-old Black man living with Guent Bu Wa, a rare hereditary sleep disorder that causes vivid, prophetic dreams.

In this premier of Chapter 4, we see shifts in the scale and viewpoint of Horton’s artistic practice. Through immersive sculptural assemblages, symbolic iconography, and his beloved meticulously drawn figures, Horton weaves a dreamlike account of the consequences of intergenerational trauma, cultural legacy, and the rupture of colonial inheritance. The narrative unfolds within a cosmology where memory refuses erasure and the past presses insistently into the present.

Horton’s large-scale works employ photorealist graphite drawings with cyanotype (a blue-toned photographic printing process) to imagine absorbing visual imagery shaped by dream logic. In these new works ruptured histories resurface and inheritance demands witness. Horton invites presence instead of closure, knowing some feelings are too big to explain away or resolve. They simply need holding.

The presentation of Gee Horton: Chapter 4, In Another Lifetime at CAC is supported by Lauren + Tom Shafer, Jens Rosenkrantz + M. Katherine Hurley, Barbara A. Turner BT RISE, Inc., Barbara K. Meyers, Rozy Park + Chris Dendy, Bader + Simon, Sara + Michelle Vance Waddell, The Mayerson Foundation, Brian + Lisa Tent, Weekend Sea Fund, Northern Cincinnati Foundation, Bill + Kate Baumann, Eric + Jan-Michele Kearney, and Kristin Zelinskas. In-kind support provided by The Picture Frame Company, The Plant Trolley, Inc., The Mercantile Library, Habitat for Humanity, and Shay Nartker.

CAC major annual operating support is provided by ArtsWave, Lucinda Barnes, Gale + Dave Beckett, Bruce Family Charitable Foundation, Dr. Albert Alan Chambers, Jay Chatterjee, Robert + Debra Chavez, James A. Cheng, Michael Cioffi, DaSci Consulting Group LLC, Nicholas Dunigan, Dianne G. Dunkelman, Earthward Bound Foundation, Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc., Friedlander Family Fund, Amy Goodwin, Greater Cincinnati Foundation, Andrew Howe Family Foundation, The Johnson Foundation, Eric + Jan-Michele Kearney, Kettering Family Philanthropies, Claudia Kohlman, Emily Kokenge + David Kitchings, The Kroger Company, George + Linda Kurz, Bruce Lazarus + Phil Weintraub, Patrick Mathews, Rick Michelman + Karen Meyer, Ohio Arts Council, Denise Osterhues, Jennie Rosenthal, Kitty + Dick Rosenthal, Rosenthal Family Foundation, Thomas R. Schiff, John J. + Mary R. Schiff Foundation, Rosemary + Mark Schlachter, Stuart + Roz Schloss, Brian Sedra, Steve + Julie Shifman, Mu Sinclaire, Mary Taliaferro, Sara + Michelle Vance Waddell, and Chris Varias.

Curated by

Maria Seda-Reeder, CAC Adjunct Curator