Artist
Wesley Clark Biography
Biography
Wesley Clark was born in Washington, DC and grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Syracuse University and a Master of Fine Arts from George Washington University — where he was twice awarded the Morris Louis Fellowship in 2010 and 2011; a fellowship primarily awarded once per incoming graduate class.
Clark primarily creates mixed media wood assemblages that read as familiar to the general masses, and are often hybrids of two or more objects or concepts. He refers to these objects as artifacts or fictional artifacts, made to look as if they’ve lived a life prior to being on display and prompting viewers to question their importance and create their own narratives based on their experiences. Clark infuses social and politic criticisms into his works; merging the historical with the contemporary, to speak on issues faced by Blacks in America.
Wesley Clark has exhibited works at institutions such as the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington D.C.; Columbia College Glass Curtain Gallery, Chicago, Illinois; and Prizm Art Fair, Miami, Florida during Art Basel.
Clark’s works, Target, 456 and Welcome to the Tea Party were acquired in 2013 by noted art collector, Peggy Cooper Cafritz . In 2016, he was commissioned by The American Alliance of Museums to create, Shift. Rotate. Repeat — a public artwork at the site of President Lincoln’s cottage in Washington, D.C. for museum week. Clark was a panelist for the Critical Craft Forum that took place at the College Arts Association 2016 conference. He has also been a guest lecturer at Capital City Public Charter School High School, in Washington, D.C. In addressing the student body, Clark offered insight on the creative process and the development of artwork, from conceptualization to materialization.
Clark has taught at George Washington University’s Columbian College/Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, teaching Introduction to Painting, Introduction to Drawing, and First year Studio 2D. He is a member of the D.C. based artists’ collective Delusions of Grandeur. Clark currently resides in Hyattsville, MD, with his wife and two beautiful children.
Alfred Conteh (b. 1975, Warner Robins, Georgia) is a classically trained artist, who has practiced his craft for more than 20 years. After earning a Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts from Hampton University, Conteh continued his formal education at Georgia Southern University; earning a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts. 
The paintings in this series are visual explorations of how African diasporal societies in the South are fighting social, economic, educational and psychological wars from within and without to survive. The honest and false narratives of history embodied in this series are primarily personified in patinated colossuses that symbolize the culture and realities of the populations they tower over, and the battles we’ve fought and continue to fight. We are at war on two fronts.
