In this
collaged and painted work, Deborah Roberts presents a kneeling preteen boy.
With his head resting in his right hand, he seems partially at rest; yet, his
left hand and wandering eyes convey a tension or danger. “At the base of everything
that I’m trying to say is that we’re starting off with an innocent kid,”
Roberts explains, “and I’m dealing with what society has drawn on.” This work’s
title, The Inconvenient citizen, references the complex politics that
Black children are forced to navigate. Though Roberts’s collages are meant to
reflect present inequalities, they also cele­brate Blackness, beauty, and
innocence.