Guest Curator Christopher Blay

The Exhibition Lecture Series is a dynamic new program featuring curators and artists from the Modern’s special exhibitions and permanent collection. This series provides a rare opportunity to explore the creative processes, curatorial strategies, and artistic visions that shape modern and contemporary art. The Exhibition Lecture Series is a free program open to the public.

Seating begins at 5:30 pm. Free admission tickets (limit two per person) are available at the Modern’s information desk beginning at 4 pm on the day of the lecture. A limited number of tickets (limit two per person) will be available for purchase online ($5) from 10 am until 4 pm the day before the lecture. Purchase your online ticket here starting at 10 am on Thursday, February 27.

As part of the Modern’s Exhibition Lecture Series, guest curator Christopher Blay will speak on the special exhibition David-Jeremiah: The Fire This Time, on view August 16–November 2. Blay will delve into the foundations of David-Jeremiah’s practice, with a focus on the powerful motif of fire as both subject and method. Offering an in-depth look at the philosophical and formal strategies behind the exhibition, Blay will situate the work within broader currents of Conceptualism and explore the artist’s use of scale, ritual, and conceptual rigor to transform the language of contemporary painting and redefine the boundaries of self-reflective artmaking.

The Fire This Time presents a group of twenty-seven towering vertical assemblages. The three-sectioned black and polychromatic paintings on shaped wood panels, when installed, measure approximately ten feet tall. In sections of the exhibition, these works are configured to completely surround the viewer, creating an immersive spatial and psychological encounter that the artist describes as an inverted-performance installation. The viewer is metaphorically situated within the embers of the fires and positioned as both observer and participant, compelled to engage in reflection. David-Jeremiah’s installation confronts the viewer with fire not only as a visual and symbolic element, but as a mode of transformation. As the artist noted, “You’re not on fire. You are fire.”

Bio of Guest Curator Christopher Blay
Christopher Blay is a Liberian-born American artist, curator, and writer based in Fort Worth. A graduate of Texas Christian University with a BFA in studio art and art history, he is currently the Director of Public Programs at the National Juneteenth Museum and was formerly the Chief Curator of the Houston Museum of African American Culture (2021–24). Prior to that, he served as News Editor at Glasstire, from 2019 to 2021, and as curator of the Art Corridor Galleries at Tarrant County College for a decade.

Blay is a contributing writer for Art in America, including essays on David-Jeremiah, Jammie Holmes and Julie Speed. Blay has also contributed catalogue texts for artists Erika DeFreitas, Richard Doherty, Nathaniel Donnett, Alan Govenar, Letitia Huckaby, and Richard Prince. He also curated the 2024 Citywide African American Artist Exhibition at the Glassell School for The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

In addition to his writing and curatorial work, Blay maintains a robust visual art practice. His recent projects include the public art sculpture East Rosedale Monument Project (2024), commissioned by the Fort Worth Public Art Commission; the solo exhibition Ritual SpLaVCe at the Galveston Art Center (2024); and the group exhibition Elemental Currents – Material Memory and Myth at Ballroom Marfa (2025).