Self-Portrait as a Nice White Lady, 1995
![](https://studiomuseum.imgix.net/images/Self-Portrait-as-a-Nice-White-Lady.jpg?auto=format,compress&fit=max&w=4040)
- Artist
Adrian Piper
- Title
Self-Portrait as a Nice White Lady
- Date
1995
- Medium
Black-and-white autophoto with oil-crayon drawing
- Edition
AP/L-75
- Credit line
The Studio Museum in Harlem; Museum purchase made possible by a gift from Barbara Karp Shuster, New York
- Object Number
2004.2.5
Interested in the expectations that race and gender place on the body, Adrian Piper titles this work Self-Portrait as a Nice White Lady. As a white-passing Black woman, Piper asks us to consider what it means to view her as a “nice” white woman. The image refutes its title by presenting Piper as herself, a Black woman, who cannot be reduced to being simply “nice.” The work’s text—“Whut choo lookin at, mofo?”—is a call to pay attention and confront how stereotypes inform the way we read people.
Self-Portrait as a Nice White Lady, 1995
![](https://studiomuseum.imgix.net/images/Self-Portrait-as-a-Nice-White-Lady.jpg?auto=format,compress&fit=max&w=4040)
- Artist
Adrian Piper
- Title
Self-Portrait as a Nice White Lady
- Date
1995
- Medium
Black-and-white autophoto with oil-crayon drawing
- Edition
AP/L-75
- Credit line
The Studio Museum in Harlem; Museum purchase made possible by a gift from Barbara Karp Shuster, New York
- Object Number
2004.2.5
Interested in the expectations that race and gender place on the body, Adrian Piper titles this work Self-Portrait as a Nice White Lady. As a white-passing Black woman, Piper asks us to consider what it means to view her as a “nice” white woman. The image refutes its title by presenting Piper as herself, a Black woman, who cannot be reduced to being simply “nice.” The work’s text—“Whut choo lookin at, mofo?”—is a call to pay attention and confront how stereotypes inform the way we read people.