Women Heal through Rite and Ritual – Tawny Chatmon

Women Heal through Rite and Ritual

Lavett Ballard | Tawny Chatmon | Oletha DeVane | Shanequa Gay | Delita Martin | Elsa Muñoz | Renée Stout | exhibition page

Tawny Chatmon

It is my belief that our memories and experiences are directly responsible for who we become. What we are exposed to, what we read, the toys we play with as children, what we view… I attribute this thought to my deep-seated desire to make sure I’m sending a clear message (with my work) and that the message I am sending is “saying something” important; because if I believe we are shaped by our memories, as an artist, I must also believe that I too play a small part in shaping and shifting the views of anyone who comes in contact with my life’s work.

The primary theme that drives my art practice is celebrating the beauty of black childhood. I am devoted to creating portraits that are loosely inspired by works painted during the 15th-19th centuries with the specific intent of bringing to the forefront faces that were often under-celebrated in this style of work.

My camera remains my primary tool of communication, while my constant exploration of diverse ways of expression moves me to add several different layers using a variety of mediums. After a portrait session is complete, I typically digitally manipulate my subjects and unite them with other photographic components to achieve a work that is a new photographic expression. Often lending to them the eyes of someone their elder and more wise and almost always exaggerating their hair and features in a somewhat rebellious celebratory way (in doing so, I unapologetically honor traits and characteristics often deemed unsightly in Western culture). Thereafter, I may superimpose antique patterns and textures, vintage botanical and wildlife illustrations or hand drawn digital illustration. If I feel I am not yet complete, after each portrait is refined and printed, I may combine paint and gilding adding ornamental elements inspired by 19th century artworks.

It is my hope that with each theme I explore and with each portrait I create, something vital is etched into the memory of the viewer.


Biography | Resume

Biography
My work and life have gone through many phases that have lead me to create the work I do today. I attribute this evolution to three major shifts: The decision to no longer pursue a career in dramatic arts, the birth of my first child and the death of my father.

Before becoming a photographer, I was a performer. My early childhood consisted of traveling from continent to continent as an “army brat”. After settling in the United States, my pre-teens to early adulthood was spent performing in plays put on by my aunts theater company, dinner theatre programs, school plays, attending acting workshops and the like. After receiving a small scholarship for dramatic arts in High School I enrolled in a dramatic arts conservatory, was cast in an off Broadway play, had been an extra in just enough films making me eligible to receive my Union card…and out of nowhere, I quit. Having no idea what to do next or how I would creatively earn a living, I turned to photography.

At 19, I was gifted my first camera. Photography was not new to me although considering it a career choice was. I floated through ages 20-24 self-teaching, exploring with various genres of photography and using my camera as a means of making a living. During this time, I also began learning Photoshop and taking on graphic and web design jobs.

Photographing children was something that never crossed my mind before becoming a mother. After the birth of my son, my life organically became about documenting his life. Ages 25-28 were almost exclusively dedicated to my joy of photographing him. This expanded to documenting these moments for family members which then lead to offering to do so for other families as well.

My first experience working in commercial photography came after being recommended by a client for a local commercial job. Afterwards, I began to seriously pursue other opportunities shooting for (or providing photographs for) YMCA, Until There’s a Cure and NEA and publications such as Vogue Bambini, Parenting Magazine & Baby Talk Magazine.

In 2010, my outlook and relationship with my camera changed when I began photographing my father’s battle with cancer. What we thought would be a testimony of his victory turned out to be my documentation of cancer taking his life. Not much felt worthy of picking up my camera for after that. With his passing, something in me died, but something else awakened. I began to stop solely looking to my camera as a means of making a living and began using it as a way to communicate my joy, my pain & my frustration.

Now 39, I look to photography less as a career or a job and more as a calling. My work is ever-changing and constantly evolving as am I. The portraits I create today are almost always inspired by my children and usually of someone that I am close to in some way (my daughters, son, God daughter, a relative, or a model that I’ve worked with in the past) and is driven by my desire contribute something important to a world that I want my children to thrive in.


Artist’s Short

 
One to Watch: Tawny Chatmon

Women Heal through Rite and Ritual – Lavett Ballard

Women Heal through Rite and Ritual

Lavett Ballard | Tawny Chatmon | Oletha DeVane | Shanequa Gay | Delita Martin | Elsa Muñoz | Renée Stout | exhibition page

Lavett Ballard


As a child, I would spend summers at our family farm in Virginia. This ritual of traveling from the North to the South all the while being fed the stories of how we grew to gain the property and how the “Big House” I would be staying in was built by my three times great grandmother’s sons. The house was a step back in time prior, to the flight of the Great Migration which sent masses toward opportunities in the North. Through this experience, I was drawn to the history of the log cabin that held generations of my family in a home surrounded by photographs that chronicled our history.

This experience helped to foster an interest in visual storytelling while fusing the wood that surrounded me during the summers of my youth. My strong affinity for imagery and history has led me to focus on creating a visual lexicon of the African American experience and self-identity.

I’ve spent hours compiling a photographic catalog of female and male images that cover the African diaspora over different geographic areas and historic periods. The prints are collaged, painted, destroyed and reborn to create a re-imagined visual narrative. I use reclaimed large and small aged wood fences, as a symbolic reference to how fences keep people in and out, just as racial and gender identities can act as barriers in our socially. These fences are then arranged as ‘altars’ as icons to honor the strength and determination of each subject.


Biography | Resume

Biography
Lavett Ballard is an Artist, Art historian, Curator, and Author. She hold a dual Bachelor’s in Studio Art and Art History with a minor in Museum Studies from Rutgers University, and an MFA in Studio Art from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Ballard’s art has been included in literary, film and theatre productions and museum, galleries, public, private institutions and exhibitions nationwide. Among other accolades I have been named by Black Art in America as one of the Top 10 Female Emerging Artists to Collect and has been nominated for the inaugural Art for Social change Pew Foundation funded Residency among other distinguished honors. Her work has been acquired by prominent collections such as the Smithsonian, the African American Museum of Philadelphia, the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center, Weeksville Heritage Center, the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection and the Grant and Tamia Hill private Collections.

Ballard views her art as a re-imagined visual narrative of people of African descent. Her use of imagery reflects social issues affecting primarily Black women’s stories within a historical context. Her current body of work uses collaged photos adorned with paint, oil pastels, and metallic foils. These photos are deconstructed and layered on reclaimed large and small aged wood fences. The use of fences is a symbolic reference to how fences keep people in and out, just as racial and gender identities can do the same socially. The fusion of wood and photography offers artwork that both explores her southern roots, visually speaks volumes to continuing themes within her community.

Women Heal through Rite and Ritual

Women Heal through Rite and Ritual – Online Exhibition

Artists | Artwork | Videos | Exhibition Catalog

Women Heal through Rite and Ritual draws from the imaginative narratives of artists Lavett Ballard, Tawny Chatmon, Oletha DeVane, Shanequa Gay, Delita Martin, Elsa Muñoz and Renée Stout who look to non-Western traditions for inspiration in exploring a woman’s role as nurturer of family and community; and as traditional healer, conjure woman, and clairvoyant who dwells in both the physical and spiritual realms.

Delita Martin, "Black Moon"
Elsa Muñoz, "Controlled Burn 14"
Oletha DeVane, "Sanctuary"
Renée Stout, "The Time She Saw Too Much"
Shanequa Gay, "summoning"
Tawny Chatmon, "Two: The Awakening Series"
Lavett Ballard, "Healing-Rituals"
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Conveyed through visceral imagery—manifested in paintings, prints, photography, and sanctuaries are the artists’ cultural, social, spiritual, and political commentaries on the rites of womanhood, and an intimate and compelling testament to the essence of the divine feminine and self.

As giver of life, custodian of traditional African religion and customs, preserver of culture, counselor, and psychologist, and at times, the conduit between two worlds, Women Heal through Rite and Ritual celebrates and reclaims a woman’s power and place in the natural and supernatural worlds.


As the COVID-19 (coronavirus) continues to permeate every aspect of our lives, we recognize the need to take preventative measures in order to ensure the safety of our staff, our artists, and our patrons. While the gallery remains closed, we offer an online version of our current exhibition Women Heal through Rite and Ritual. We are planning to hold the opening reception and artist talk in the future. However, because of the fluidity of the situation, no date will be announced at this time. Until then enjoy the online exhibition!

Reparations – Some Things are Just Owed and Some…

Reparations: Some Things are Just Owed and Some More than Others

Solo Exhibition featuring Wesley Clark
September 22 – October, 31, 2019

artwork | artist statement | curatorial statement | about Wesley Clark

Artist Statement
The exhibition, Reparations: Some Things are Just Owed, and Some More than Others, showcases a selection of objects created by a recently discovered artisanal-based company, Reparations & Co. Reparations & Co. (a.k.a. Rep & Co.) founded by Eugene & Morris, two Black men during the Reconstruction era, created functional, subversive, and empowering objects — some futuristic in thought and process. Not much is known about the craftsmen or the company, however, in recent years several objects have surfaced on the auction and secondary markets with the company’s logo, prompting research. As such, researchers discovered what is believed to be their shop in an overgrown, abandoned, dilapidated barn-like structure near Freetown, in Glen Burnie, MD. The collection found is vast and while remarkably well preserved, some objects were vandalized, prompting restoration efforts. On display in this exhibition viewers get a peek into the past through the minds of two craftsmen as they fuse economic empowerment, restoration of identity, and more into their functional and decorative objects; during a pivotal yet short-lived period of American history.

The fictitious narrative of Reparations & Co. is what drives many of the aesthetic choices; it is the vehicle used to create a dialogue on ideas of racial socialization — as described in Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, by Dr. Joy DeGruy — as a means of expanding and internalizing the discussion of reparations to include what we as Black Americans owe ourselves.

“…the process whereby we come to know our strengths, understand the world in which we live, and position ourselves to thrive. Continual education is at the heart of racial socialization. For young children, education is the elder’s responsibility. For adults, the responsibility is our own. We have to remain vigilant and questioning. We have to continue to constantly endeavor to keep ourselves informed and our education current. We have to question the image we ourselves are portraying. We have to examine the sounds and pictures we expose ourselves to. We have to filter what we hear on the news and strive to understand what is true.“
– Joy DeGruy, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome

watch Joy DeGruy lecture on Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome

Whether from present day or generational trauma, communal preparation and advancement are at the heart of this body of work. Under the umbrella of preparation, inwardly focused themes around mental health, family history and legacy, self-respect and dignity, leadership, rebuilding the Black economy and restoring relationships are touched on as a means of being solution-oriented. While there are outside influences discussed on the traditional theme of reparations, the focus remains inward. Two examples of such influences can be found when examining the works The Profiteers 1 & The Profiteers 2. The first recognizes existing companies operating in the US (though possibly under a new name) that profited from the enslavement of Africans. The second names corporations that have or still use prison labor and thereby support the growth of the prison industrial complex (i.e., Sprint, Verizon, Bank of America and Walmart). My intent is to think about self-respect, as well as building and supporting a Black economy, as each name listed represents an industry for the Blacks to build and compete in.

A large portion of my work considers aging, weathering, and/or antiquing objects driven by fictional narratives, which informs my aesthetic choices. Most often this process is about linking present day content to historical issues, or ideas around value. Objects that are salvaged and displayed are deemed to possess a certain value or esteem. I set the stage for that sense of value to be linked to contemporary socio-political or socio-economic issues and conversations. With this body of work, I’ve chosen to incorporate custom automotive high gloss paints — often used on “tricked out” or restored cars — as a contemporary reference to notions of value. These “candy” or “flip flop/color shifting” paints are typical for early/classic model cars souped up with big, fancy rims, chrome details, or engine/body modifications. These cars have been popularized by rap culture in particular and therefore are associated with money, fame, and all that comes with it — just as owning a certain antique furniture piece once were — hence speaks to a younger generation’s value system. Such paints were incorporated into the works, Restoring our Majesty, Wading in the Waters of Babylon, and The Tell-All Earbox: Model no. C3l3stial-4, as one of two visual elements — the other being “tagging”/graffiti writing — to fuse the temporal space between the antique lover and millennial mind.

I’m not concerned with the viewer engaging my personal narratives that drive the work. More often than not, they’re just for me and my process. Reparations & Co. marks the first time my working narrative has held an elemental position (in the form of a logo placed on a few works) and thus a larger more robust storyline has emerged. I work with fictitious narratives as a means of setting a stage for myself mentally — and every stage has its props and boundaries. Therefore I’m constantly questioning, “Does this idea/object fit within the boundaries of my stage and how?” The objects (props) I choose to create are often ubiquitous, even mundane items with slight hybridity-like aspects tossed in for good measure. For the viewer, it’s the objects’ familiarity — loaded with preconceived notions and understandings – that allow entryway. With that familiarity in place, the stage is set for viewers to explore the relationship with the “foreign” social and/or political elements incorporated into the work.

Reparations Some Things are Just Owed and Some More…

Reparations: Some Things are Just Owed and Some More than Others

Solo Exhibition featuring Wesley Clark
September 22 – October, 31, 2019

artwork | artist statement | curatorial statement | about Wesley Clark

Artwork

Tawny Chatmon Exhibit at Fotografiska

Tawny Chatmon Exhibits at Fotografiska, New York, NY

December 14, 2019 – March 22, 2020

Tawny Chatmon

Inheritance

”Our children inherit what we don’t resolve” anonymous

Inheritance, by Tawny Chatmon (American, b. 1979), invites the viewer to look beyond the decorated and nuanced portraits to examine issues of race and the historical positioning of African American portraiture in the absence of subjugation of the “black body” in Western art.

Chatmon, a mother of three black children, draws from her life experiences and belief that children inherit our memories, beliefs, traditions, and the world that we leave behind. Through her photographs, she conveys a message to her children, and to all black children, that they are precious, valued, and loved.

While the camera is her primary tool of communication, Chatmon takes a multi-layered approach in producing her photographs—her process does not subscribe to conventional photography. The photographs are often manipulated and hand-embellished with acrylic paint and 24-karat gold leaf, inspired by Gustav Klimt’s (1862-1918) “Golden Phase.” The use of gold and ornamentation in Klimt’s work evokes feelings of grace, magnificence, and beauty within Chatmon and has remained in the artist’s consciousness. These are the emotions Chatmon seeks to convey to those viewing her photographs. Her portraits are staged vignettes with models, who at times are her own children, wearing elegant garments. Chatmon experiments with various art practices and does not restrict herself to follow any set of rules, allowing her to create instinctually and fluidly. The result is a beautiful and powerful iconography that speaks to “the disparities that continue to affect black people around the world.”

This exhibition presents three bodies of work: The Awakening, Byzantine Contempo, and The Redemption. In these series, Chatmon celebrates the beauty of black childhood, African American culture, and the delicate intricacies of protecting and raising a black child in today’s world. Each series is a conversation on love, nurturing, and the familial bond; a commentary on the politics of blackness; the historical portrayal of the black body; and an investigation of Renaissance and Byzantine portraiture. In combating the negative stereotyping associated with natural hairstyles and adornments that are distinctively likened to black people and culture, Chatmon glorifies various styles: afros, locs, twists, and barbershop cuts revered in black communities. Embedded within the works are messages of embracing one’s beauty and cultural pride.

Text by Myrtis Bedolla. Edited by Grace Noh and Amanda Hajjar.

Inheritance is organized by Fotografiska, in collaboration with the artist and Galerie Myrtis.

Fotografiska
281 Park Ave South
New York, NY 10010 United States

about the exhibition | press | about Tawny

Reparations: Some Things are Just Owed and Some More…

Reparations: Some Things are Just Owed and Some More than Others

Solo Exhibition featuring Wesley Clark
September 22 – October, 31, 2019

artwork | artist statement | curatorial statement | about Wesley Clark

Curatorial Statement by Myrtis Bedolla
Through a revolutionary intellectual process, Wesley Clark (1979) in his first solo exhibition at Galerie Myrtis creates a fantastical world of interwoven history, Afro-futurists, coded messages and mechanisms for survival in his investigation of what America owes the descendants of slaves and most importantly, what they owe themselves.

In Reparations: Some Things are just Owed and Some More than Others Clark probes the vestiges of slavery by transporting viewers to the reconstruction era (1865-1877) where they discover Reparations & Co. (a. k. a. Rep & Co.), a company established by Rep. & Co. Brothers, Morris and Eugene. As protagonists in Clark’s fictional world, the Rep. & Co. Brothers deploy their carpentry skills and ability to see into the future to invent devices for coping with racial discrimination, social injustice, and trauma; while offering African Americans tools to navigate and survive in a society that deems them as “other.”

A history on the economics of slavery is deployed through what appear to be simply crossword puzzles. Left in the hands of the Rep. & Co. Brothers, the lessons are disguised as decorative wall hangings; Profiteers I: Enslavement reveals the names of corporations that profited from the transatlantic slave trade and continue to operate today, namely, Lehman Brothers and J.P. Morgan. In Profiteers II: Imprisonment those benefiting from today’s modern form of slavery —the prison industrial complex —are eerily connected as their names overlap on the puzzle board, among them, Walmart, General Motors, Verizon, and Chrysler.

When expanding the narrative to what African Americans owe themselves, Clark draws inspiration from Dr. Joy DeGruy author of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. In it DeGruy offers racial socialization as the key to confronting negative attitudes and behaviors that have plagued the black community for generations.

For Clark, the solutions lie in the creative genius of the Rep. & Co. Brothers who possess an innate understanding of the needs of the progenies of those once enslaved. Knowing that knowledge is power, they invent The Prophet’s Library a series of books informed by black scholars. Bound in wood are books that hold the unaltered truths of Black history, or is it? For coping with trauma the series Tell-All Earbox travels the country in a circus-like tent allowing all to come and bear their souls. The ear boxes are an early form of psychology. One is allowed to whisper in the ear on the box, for it holds all secrets without judgement or stigma attached. Black men and their sons can seek emotional healing in The Gift, a bearing of hearts. And in probing leadership, who we are led by and who we choose to lead, A Word Spoken is a Word Heard becomes the platform for an interactive performance on the subject.

In his artist’s statement, Clark shares the impulse for investigating the notion of reparations and creating the imagined Rep. & Co., “This fictitious narrative is the vehicle used to create a dialogue on ideas of racial socialization – as described in Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Dr. Joy DeGruy – as a means of expanding and internalizing the discussion of reparations to include what we as, Black Americans, owe ourselves.

Concepts around healing work — whether from present day or generational trauma — as a means of communal preparation and advancement, are at the heart of this body of work. While there are outside influences touched on around the idea of reparations, I’m focused inward…” Excerpt from artist’s statement

In Reparations: Some Things are just Owed and Some More than Others viewers will be challenged to discern fact from fiction. Clark’s confluence of mixed chronology, reimaged world, and brilliantly designed devices result in an experience that is culturally conscious, clever, and provocative.

artwork
Table of Contents
Oil paint on wood
47” x 89”
2017

Art of the Collectors VII – 1500 and Under

Art of the Collectors VII – Artwork Available Between $295 and $1,500


Tawny Chatmon Exhibits at Fotografiska

Tawny Chatmon Exhibits at Fotografiska, New York, NY

December 14, 2019 – March 22, 2020

Tawny Chatmon

Inheritance

”Our children inherit what we don’t resolve” anonymous

Inheritance, by Tawny Chatmon (American, b. 1979), invites the viewer to look beyond the decorated and nuanced portraits to examine issues of race and the historical positioning of African American portraiture in the absence of subjugation of the “black body” in Western art.

Chatmon, a mother of three black children, draws from her life experiences and belief that children inherit our memories, beliefs, traditions, and the world that we leave behind. Through her photographs, she conveys a message to her children, and to all black children, that they are precious, valued, and loved.

While the camera is her primary tool of communication, Chatmon takes a multi-layered approach in producing her photographs—her process does not subscribe to conventional photography. The photographs are often manipulated and hand-embellished with acrylic paint and 24-karat gold leaf, inspired by Gustav Klimt’s (1862-1918) “Golden Phase.” The use of gold and ornamentation in Klimt’s work evokes feelings of grace, magnificence, and beauty within Chatmon and has remained in the artist’s consciousness. These are the emotions Chatmon seeks to convey to those viewing her photographs. Her portraits are staged vignettes with models, who at times are her own children, wearing elegant garments. Chatmon experiments with various art practices and does not restrict herself to follow any set of rules, allowing her to create instinctually and fluidly. The result is a beautiful and powerful iconography that speaks to “the disparities that continue to affect black people around the world.”

This exhibition presents three bodies of work: The Awakening, Byzantine Contempo, and The Redemption. In these series, Chatmon celebrates the beauty of black childhood, African American culture, and the delicate intricacies of protecting and raising a black child in today’s world. Each series is a conversation on love, nurturing, and the familial bond; a commentary on the politics of blackness; the historical portrayal of the black body; and an investigation of Renaissance and Byzantine portraiture. In combating the negative stereotyping associated with natural hairstyles and adornments that are distinctively likened to black people and culture, Chatmon glorifies various styles: afros, locs, twists, and barbershop cuts revered in black communities. Embedded within the works are messages of embracing one’s beauty and cultural pride.

Text by Myrtis Bedolla. Edited by Grace Noh and Amanda Hajjar.

Inheritance is organized by Fotografiska, in collaboration with the artist and Galerie Myrtis.

Fotografiska
281 Park Ave South
New York, NY 10010 United States

about the exhibition | press | about Tawny

Reparations: Some Things are Just Owed and Some More…

Reparations: Some Things are Just Owed
and
Some More than Others


Solo Exhibition featuring Wesley Clark
September 22 – October, 31, 2019

artist statement | curatorial statement | about Wesley Clark

Through a revolutionary intellectual process, Wesley Clark (1979) in his first solo exhibition at Galerie Myrtis creates a fantastical world of interwoven history, Afro-futurists, coded messages and mechanisms for survival in his investigation of what America owes the descendants of slaves and most importantly, what they owe themselves.

In Reparations: Some Things are just Owed and Some More than Others Clark probes the vestiges of slavery by transporting viewers to the reconstruction era (1865-1877) where they discover Reparations & Co. (a. k. a. Rep & Co.), a company established by Rep. & Co. Brothers, Morris and Eugene. As protagonists in Clark’s fictional world, the Rep. & Co. Brothers deploy their carpentry skills and ability to see into the future to invent devices for coping with racial discrimination, social injustice, and trauma; while offering African Americans tools to navigate and survive in a society that deems them as “other.”
read full Curatorial Statement by Myrtis Bedolla

The Tell-All Earbox: Model no. C3l3stial-4
Urethane paint, wood, 8-1/2″ x 10-1/2″ x 9″, 2019


Artwork