Lyle Ashton Harris has deftly examined the politics of race, sexuality, and gender since the 1980s. In his breakthrough series, “America” (1987–88), Harris photographed himself in drag and whiteface. Raised in New York and Tanzania, he received an MFA in 1990 from the California Institute of the Arts, where he befriended visiting artists and lecturers such as Isaac Julien, Marlon Riggs, and bell hooks. Harris participated in the Whitney’s Independent Study Program in 1992. His work from that decade includes diaristic photos and videos, as well as “The Good Life” (1994), a color portrait series of his biological and chosen queer families. Harris’s photographs, films, and collages address subjects such as the vulnerability of the Black male body and the AIDS crisis. His work has been shown in major international group exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale (2007), the Busan Biennale (2008), the Bienal de São Paulo (2016), and the Whitney Biennial (2017). He received the David C. Driskell Prize from the High Museum of Art in 2014 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2016.