Natia Lemay and Xavier Daniels’ The Intuitionist at 21c Museum Hotel Durham

In a cultural moment obsessed with data-driven validation, curator Charles Moore’s exhibition The Intuitionist at 21c Museum Hotel Durham (opening June 12, 2025) is a radical act of faith. Featuring painters Natia Lemay and Xavier Daniels, the show draws its title and philosophical backbone from Colson Whitehead’s 1999 novel—a tale of warring elevator inspectors: Empiricists (who trust measurements) and Intuitionists (who feel mechanical truth). Here, Moore explores this binary thinking through identity, memory, and perception, asking: How do we honor what can’t be quantified? 

 

"I read ‘The Intuitionist’ years ago," he tells me, "but seeing Natia and Xavier’s work, I knew it was the key." Moore’s curation often breathes alongside fiction. He gifted copies to both artists, urging them to sit with Whitehead’s exploration of unseen knowledge. For Lemay, an Afro-Indigenous painter whose practice excavates fragmented childhood trauma, the resonance was instant: "The book describes exactly what I’ve fought for—validating intuition when empirical ‘proof’ dismisses lived experience. Like microaggressions, abuse, queerness... things archives ignore because there’s no ‘receipt.’"  

 

Daniels, whose large-scale portraits dissect Black masculinity, found kinship in Whitehead’s critique of systems demanding performative visibility. "Xavier wrestles with the gaze," Moore explains. "His new work asks, ‘What if Black men could just be without policing how they’re perceived?’ That’s Intuitionism—trusting inner truth over external validation."  

 

The exhibition hinges on two central works. Lemay’s "In the Space Between" (2025)—a piece two years in the making—depicts two women: one facing forward, another cradling her head. "It’s that moment of breakdown and acceptance," Lemay describes. "When you’re furious but also mad at yourself for being emotional. How do you navigate that limbo?" The painting’s obscured details and psychological tension reject literal trauma narratives, instead evoking what Whitehead called "the black box"—the unknowable core where intuition resides.  

 

Daniels intersects with "In Lieu of Imperfection" (2025), continuing his mission to "assert Black male presence into conversations that render us invisible." His figures, draped in avant-garde fabrics, strike vulnerable poses rarely associated with Black men. Using Renaissance-like realism spliced with abstract color fields, Daniels forces viewers beyond superficial perception. "He’s not painting stereotypes," Moore emphasizes. "He’s painting humanity—complex, quiet, and defiantly unmeasurable."  

 

The choice of 21c—a hybrid hotel/museum with free public access—is no accident. Both artists and curator champion accessibility in an art market reeling from declining middle-class collectors. "Spaces like this toggle perfectly between exposure and respect," argues Lemay. "It’s not a white cube intimidating newcomers, nor a hotel room where art gets damaged. It’s a gateway."  

 

Moore, who’s curated in abandoned mansions and mobile offices, relishes breaking elitist codes: "Galleries build walls—pretentious staff, opaque pricing. Here, a family checking in for the night stumbles upon profound art. That democratizes the ‘intuition’ we’re celebrating." His 2021 book "The Black Market" dismantled myths that art collecting requires Jay-Z’s wallet; this show extends that ethos.  

 

For Lemay, intuition is also armor. Her use of deep blacks—a "psychological space with weight"—demands in-person engagement, thwarting lazy digital consumption. "People miss the intersectional layers in my work because they just see a Black figure and box me as a ‘Black artist,’" she says, a lament she also expressed when we last spoke about her acclaimed 2023 solo show Nineteen Eighty-Five. "Ironically, that proves Whitehead’s point: society struggles to see beyond surfaces."   

 

Echoing this, Moore noted the market’s fixation on figurative Black art over abstraction. "They want the body on the wall—not the interiority." However, he believes both artists transcend reductive labels. "Walk any art fair and if you see Natia’s texture, Xavier’s color—you know it’s their signature voice. That’s intuition made visible."  

 

The Intuitionist doesn’t argue for abandoning reason. As Lemay notes, Whitehead’s climax reveals the "black box" doesn’t hold easy answers: "Both intuition and data are necessary. Balance is everything." In a world where DEI initiatives face backlash and trauma is often commodified, Moore’s exhibition is a sanctuary for the unprovable—the gut feelings, silenced histories, and embodied truths that resist quantification. In the end, the show mirrors Lemay’s description of her own work: It’s not a mirror, but a membrane. You don’t exit with explanations. You exit feeling the weight of what lingers, unseen, in the space between.