Artist Archives - Galerie Myrtis

Jerrell Gibbs – Statement

Statement

Jerrell Gibbs (b. 1988; Baltimore, Maryland) explores the complexities of life by investigating his personal experiences and those of his family and friends. Ultimately working to evoke the emotions that one experiences during the maturation time period from a child to an adult. In this way, through his work he finds ways to cope and re-examine the past. While simultaneously examining present realities of living in the twenty-first century as a Black male.

Gibbs is committed to creating paintings that are both authentic and truthful. His paintings highlight: joy, beauty, and the mundane, all components within the vastness of life. The compositions, which are often taken from his family archive, focus on the placement, scale, and proportion, as much as they do on mark-making and painterly gestures. Gibbs aims to re-create the emotional sensation associated with life experiences offering viewers the opportunity to reflect on universal moments we all share.

Man at Peace, 2022
Oil, acrylic, oil stick on canvas
48 x 48 ″

Good Fences: Neighboring Narratives of the Soul

Solo Exhibition – Lavett Ballard
March 30 – May 4, 2024

Opening Reception
March 30th, 4:00 – 6:00 pm.

Programming
April 20th, 4:00 – 6:00 pm.
Join us for an enlightening conversation with featured artist Lavett Ballard, moderated by exhibition curator and founding director of Galerie Myrtis, Dr. Myrtis Bedolla.

Galerie Myrtis proudly presents Good Fences: Neighboring Narratives of the Soul, a solo exhibition featuring renowned collage artist Lavett Ballard. The exhibit offers a survey of Ballard’s career long practice of embellishing reclaimed wood fences with images taken from historical archives, along with paints, woodburning, and precious metals. These mixed media collages re-contextualize the historical socio-cultural challenges experienced by people of color.

Ballard has had the esteemed honor of being commissioned by Time Magazine to create a portrait of civil rights activist Rosa Parks for the “100 Women of the Year” edition. The artwork, titled “The Bus Riders,” was published on March 16, 2020. In 2023, Time Magazine approached Ballard again to create a visual narrative for an editorial written by Isabel Wilkerson. The mixed media collages, titled “Caste and Chaos,” were chosen to appear in the February 3, 2023, “Division and Destiny” issue. The same issue also featured a cover story on Ballard’s artistic process, written by Victor Williams.

Good Fences: Neighboring Narratives of the Soul sheds light on the role of fences in my artistic practice, particularly in addressing social and cultural challenges faced by people of color. I use wooden fences as powerful symbols representing both division and protection. They embody the passage of time through the grains of the wood, while also signifying the potential for renewal and transformation. Through my artwork, I aim to visually articulate and celebrate the shared experiences of the African diaspora, highlighting how our collective stories connect us to our ancestors and the broader global community.” – Lavett Ballard

Programing
Artist Talk featuring Lavett Ballard
April 20th, 2:00 – 4:00 pm.

Join us for an enlightening conversation with featured artist Lavett Ballard, moderated by exhibition curator and founding director of Galerie Myrtis, Dr. Myrtis Bedolla. The discussion will delve into Ballard’s ongoing use of reclaimed wood, the historical underpinnings of collage, and the importance of uplifting the stories of underrepresented people in her work. Additionally, guests will have the opportunity to present their thought-provoking questions to the artist.

Jerrell Gibbs

Jerrell Gibbs (b. 1988; Baltimore, Maryland) opposes deceptive perceptions of Black men by questioning master narratives and their connection to a muted visual history. Gibbs’ paintings are acts of resistance, asserting power over visual stereotypes. He paints the Black male figure with adornments, such as flowers, and contextualizes them in moments of peace, rest, and solitude. These gestures function to dismantle the visual misrepresentation of violence, trauma, and pain.

Gibbs is committed to creating paintings that are both authentic and truthful, and he reveals Black men as God- fearing, husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons. His paintings highlight joy, beauty and the mundane, all components within the vastness of Black life. The compositions, which are often taken from his family archive, focus on placement, size, proportion, as much as they do on mark-making and painterly gestures. His assertions of legacy highlight the
performative nature of heritage and displaces an audience unaccustomed to more extensive and wide-ranging portrayals of Black life.

Gibbs graduated with an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD in 2020. His work is in the permanent collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art, Columbus Museum of Art, the Los Angeles Museum of Art, the CC Foundation, and the X Museum Beijing.

Jerrell Gibbs-Biography

Biography

Ya-LaFord

Ya La’Ford (born in 1979 in Bronx, NY) is a versatile artist, educator, muralist, and above all, a conduit between the visual realm and the intricate complexities of human communities. Working across a wide range of media including paint, sculpture, installation, video, and sound, she weaves layered meanings to engage with the universal language of art and create transformative experiences that inspire communal growth.

La’Ford holds a Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Arts from The Art Institute of Boston, and she also earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law. As a first-generation American of Jamaican heritage, she gracefully navigates between her cultural roots and marginalized communities, utilizing the power of art as a medium of connection. Central to the artist’s mission is the creation of art and spatial experiences that profoundly revolutionize the social, cultural, and historical contexts of creative expression within the human journey.
(read Ya La’Ford’s full biography)

Impenetrable Cosmos, 2022
Acrylic, ink, pigment, glue,
alcohol, egg, bleach, heat, resin
& natural weathering on canvas, 21 x 12″
Image courtesy of the artist and Galerie Myrtis

Ya-LaFord-biography

Biography

Her artwork has earned a place in the esteemed permanent collections of institutions such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Vinik Family Foundation, Nike, Indy500, Grand Prix, the Rays, Rowdies, and she was selected to create art for Super Bowl 55, held in Tampa. Notable exhibitions featuring her work include the Baker Museum, Tampa Museum of Art, Orlando Museum of Fine Art, Asia Contemporary Art Show, Yeelen Gallery, and the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. Additionally, La’Ford’s artistic exploration has taken her to Bangkok, Thailand, Beijing, China, Cairo, Egypt, New Smyrna Beach, Florida, and Ogden, Utah, where she has engaged in art installations and residencies.

Ya-LaFord-statement

Artist’s Statement

Fang, 2022
Acrylic, ink, pigment, glue, alcohol, egg, bleach, heat, resin & natural weathering on canvas
72 x 54 ″

Within my artistic practice, I embark on a profound exploration of the intricate journeys, paths, and metaphysical complexities that shape our existence in the realm of space. In doing so, I push the boundaries of conventional spatial and temporal notions, probing how our perception of objects and environments transforms as we traverse the physical world. At the very essence of my creative endeavor, there is a profound reflection of my cultural hybridity, rooted in the fusion of my Jamaican heritage and my experience as a first-generation American. This amalgamation empowers me to traverse diverse cultural realms and connect with vulnerable communities, all in pursuit of a universal language that can bind us together as one.

In creating my work, I strive to communicate the unseen experiences of humanity, intricately interweaving layers laden with geometric elements. These lines, echoing a vast range of political, cultural, religious, and historical vernaculars, speak a language that transcends boundaries. My creative process involves gestural geometric paintings, where acrylic layers on canvas form a foundation for line-making techniques utilizing stain dying, pigment, pencil, pen, ink, and thick streams of paint. By conveying the compression of time, space, and place, I collapse art historical references, drawing inspiration from the dynamism of the Italian Futurists, the geometric abstraction of Malevich, and the immersive scale of Abstract Expressionist color field painting. Within this synthesis, I aim to forge new narratives, abstracting images of cities, histories, wars, and geographies. Through frenetic mark-making, I explore social agency and unravel the threads of my own personal biography.

Art possesses the remarkable power to inspire change, facilitate healing, and foster unity in the pursuit of collective growth. I actively collaborate with various communities, embedding artistic expression into the fabric of local life. By transforming spaces alongside the community, my art becomes a beacon of inspiration, infusing labyrinths of creativity that encourage engagement, reignite industrial growth, and serve as pillars of encouragement for the community at large. Within these spaces, I present an intersection of visual incidents where gridded structures become fluid and flattened, akin to layers of urban graffiti. The environments I create stimulate the imagination, offering glimpses into imagined or futuristic realities rather than the actual present. Through a cacophony of lines, I symbolize the velocity of the future and the boundless possibilities of space, juxtaposed with the time-worn materials of pigment, pencil, and paint.

In essence, my art seeks to transcend boundaries, provoke thought, and inspire a collective reimagining of our existence. It is an invitation to explore the uncharted territories of our inner selves and the vastness of the human experience.

Fabiola Jean-Louis

As her vision evolved, Fabiola’s work expanded beyond self-portraits to include a diverse range of subjects, costumes, and even sculptures made entirely out of paper. Through her lens, she captured the essence of human experience, pushing boundaries and challenging societal norms. Her photographs have been described as magical, moody, and mysterious, reflecting her unique ability to capture something intangible and pure, transcending our ordinary reality.

Jean-Louis draws inspiration from various sources, with themes of Afro-futurism, science, science fiction, pre and postindustrial eras, elves, fairies, history, and folklore, prominently featured in her work. Photography and 3-dimensional forms serve as the artist’s narrative of visual activism, challenging the hegemony of society and inviting viewers to question established narratives.
(read Fabiola’s full biography)

Paradise Lost, 2021
Archival pigment print
50″ x 41.5″

Fabiola-Jean-Louis-biography

Biography

Fabiola Jean-Louis is a talented photographer and conceptual artist known for her captivating and thought-provoking imagery and 3-Dimensional sculptural works. Born on September 10th, 1978, in Port Au Prince, Haiti, she later moved to Brooklyn, New York, where she nurtured her passion for the arts.
Fabiola’s artistic journey began to flourish during her time at the High School of Fashion Industries, where she discovered her deep-seated love for creativity. However, it wasn’t until November 2013 that she stumbled upon her hidden talent for photography while on a personal quest for artistic rediscovery. Initially using self-portraits as a means of convenience and shyness, she soon realized the power of her body as a medium to convey profound stories.

The series “Rewriting History” stands as a testament to Fabiola’s creative genius. Featuring hand-made period paper gowns, painterly photographs, and Polaroids, her body of work has garnered critical acclaim and was exhibited at esteemed institutions such as the DuSable Museum of African American History, Alan Avery Art Company, and Andrew Freedman Home, all of which are affiliated with the Smithsonian.

Fabiola’s artistic achievements extend beyond exhibition spaces. She was granted coveted residencies at the Museum of Art and Design (MAD) in New York City and the LUX Museum in San Diego, allowing her to explore her craft further and experiment with different techniques and disciplines. A grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) supported Jean-Louis’ 2023 project “Waters of the Abyss: An Intersection of Spirit and Freedom,” which honors the legacy of Black women who successfully fled, fought, and dismantled systems of enslavement in Haiti during the Haitian Revolution (1791-94), inspiring active resistance in the U.S. via the Underground Railroad. Featured at the University of Central Arkansas Baum Gallery, this monumental environment, made entirely of paper pulp, brings together multiple hands under the guidance of Jean-Louis with collaborative support from Annapolis-based artist Tawny Chatmon and students from UCA’s Department of Art and Design and Morrilton High School.

In 2021, Jean-Louis made history as the first Haitian woman artist to showcase her work at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The museum commissioned her to create a life-sized paper sculpture for a two-year exhibition titled “Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room,” solidifying her position as a groundbreaking artist and paving the way for future generations of Haitian artists.

Fabiola-Jean-Louis-statement

Artist’s Statement

Marie Antoinette Is Dead, 2016
Archival pigment print on hot press bright 320gsm
52″ x 40″

As a photographer and conceptual artist, my artistic journey encompasses the enchanting realms of magic and mystery and the power of visual activism. Through my work, I actively challenge the prevailing societal norms and hegemony. My creative explorations delve into Afro-futurism, the intersections of science and science fiction, the narratives of pre- and post-industrial eras, the rich tapestry of black history, the depths of folklore, the nuances of religion, and the profound resonance of African-centered spiritual traditions. These themes weave together, guiding me to excavate the intricate layers of blackness and navigate the profound complexities of my own identity.

My images have been described as both “magical and mysterious,” drawing viewers into a world where reality and imagination blend seamlessly. However, they are not solely intended to captivate aesthetically. Instead, they serve as vehicles for profound truth and storytelling. Through my art, I aim to disrupt dominant narratives, challenge ingrained biases, and create spaces for dialogue and introspection. I seek to reclaim and celebrate the diverse histories and cultural legacies that have often been marginalized or erased.

Afro-futurism forms a crucial pillar of my artistic exploration. By envisioning alternative futures rooted in black experiences and cultures, I challenge the limitations imposed by the present. Through speculative narratives and imagery, I invite audiences to reimagine the possibilities for black lives, centering their agency, dreams, and resilience.

My work also draws inspiration from the intersections of science and science fiction, intertwining the realms of empirical knowledge and boundless imagination. This fusion allows me to transcend conventional constraints and explore new dimensions of storytelling. I seek to forge connections between the past, present, and future, weaving narratives that highlight the endurance and ingenuity of black communities throughout history.

Folklore, religion, and African-centered spiritual traditions infuse my work with a profound sense of cultural heritage and spirituality. Drawing from the rich reservoir of myths, rituals, and symbols, I explore the ways in which these traditions shape individual and communal identities. Through visual symbolism and metaphors, I invite viewers to contemplate the
profound connections between spirituality, cultural memory, and personal transformation.

In the intricate mosaic of blackness, my art serves as a vessel for exploration, revelation, and celebration. It is an act of reclaiming narratives, challenging established power structures, and fostering dialogue. Through my images, I aim to provoke introspection, spark conversations, and inspire viewers to question their own perspectives and assumptions.