The exhibition curator and Kunsthal KAdE director, Robbert Roos, set off on an American road trip from coast to coast and back again to talk with artists, gallery owners and curators in 2019. After coming back, he concluded that “Politically and socially, it’s a nation torn apart, with not only fierce opposition between Republicans and Democrats, but city and country seemingly occupying different worlds, racial tensions still undiminished, a Christian right that is actively seeking to reverse progressive legislation, and an apparently ever sharper divide between rich and poor.”

But as he rightfully continues, “Artists have always taken up positions in this public discourse.” To illustrate how different people capture the country’s zeitgeist through a myriad of points of view, he’s chosen both renowned and emerging artists including photographers Andres Serrano, Catherine Opie and Sheila Pee Bright; painters Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, Cosmo Whyte and Lota Ezawa; multidisciplinary artists Travis Somerville, Alfredo Jaar and Jeffrey Gibson; and collectives For Freedoms and Guerrilla Girls.