Artists’ Talk & Closing Reception: The exhibition presented at Galerie Myrtis, Lest We Forget examines pivotal moments and figures in US history, as well as the everyday occurrences and unknown individuals that have impacted, to various degrees, the African American experience here, and by extension, throughout the world. view the exhibition
Artists’ Talk
Moderators: Jarvis DuBois and Deirdre Darden
Talk Participants: Shaunte Gates, Amber Robles-Gordon, Jamea Richmond-Edwards, Delita Martin and Wesley Clark
Closing Reception/Healing Ceremony
Facilitator: Geoffrey Edwards, LAC, Nu Healing Arts
The objective of the Healing ceremony is to provide the space and opportunity for attendees of the Lest We Forget exhibition and community at large to engage and reflect on the lives of the influential figures of both distant and recent past who have directly impacted current movements of social justice.
Nu Healing Arts use the expressive arts as a way to explore creative solutions to these issues by asking how can my community become a platform for creating the space that welcomes my transition to a healthier, abundant life? Geoffrey Edwards, LAC, Nu Healing Arts
New York, New York: The Stop & Frisk Game Board, 2013 by Wesley Clark[/caption]The exhibition presented at Galerie Myrtis, Lest We Forget examines pivotal moments and figures in US history, as well as the everyday occurrences and unknown individuals that have impacted, to various degrees, the African American experience here, and by extension, throughout the world. Too often individuals, movements and ideas are discounted, overlooked or ‘smudged out’ in an attempt to lessen their societal and cultural agency and potency. What has come before is particularly poignant now, more than ever, and continues to reverberate in current issues , both progressive and problematic, such as Black Lives Matter and the examination of President Obama’s legacy in the final months of his administration.
Featured Artists: Larry Cook, Wesley Clark, Shaunte Gates, Delita Martin, Jamea Richmond-Edwards, Amber Robles-Gordon and Stan Squirewell
Curated by: Jarvis DuBois and Deirdre Darden
| artists’ talk | New York, New York: The Stop & Frisk Game Board, 2013
by Wesley Clark
Artwork
The Watcher, 2015
Gelatin printing, hand-stitched, fabric and conte, 53 x 41 in. framed
Delita Martin
They Know III, 2016
Pigment Print, 92 x 32 in. diptych
Shaunte Gates
Puppet Test IV, 2016
Pigment Print, 32 x 46 in.
Shaunte Gates
Tree Branch Installation by Amber Robles-Gordon
Talking Stick: Mother of Modern Medicine, 2016
Mixed media on tree branch, ~ 41.5 in.
Amber Robles-Gordon
Talking Stick: Black Cell, Black Life Resiliency, 2016
Mixed Media on tree branch, ~ 54.5 in.
Amber Robles-Gordon
Lawrence, Elsie, Sonny, Deborah and Zakriyya, 2016
Mixed media on tree branch, ~ 62 in.
Amber Robles-Gordon
Cell Commercialization without Representation, 2016
Mixed media on tree branch, ~ 83 in.
Amber Robles-Gordon
The Sugar-icing of Henrietta Lacks, 2015
Mixed media on tree branch, ~ 64 in.
Amber Robles-Gordon
Above All You Must Do No Harm, 2016
Mixed media on tree branch, ~ 69 in.
Amber Robles-Gordon
Talking Stick: Without a Black Women's Consent, 2016
Mixed media on tree branch, ~ 33 in.
Amber Robles-Gordon
Tree Branch Installation by Amber Robles-Gordon
New York, New York: The Stop & Frisk Game Board, 2013
Oil paint, acrylic, spray paint on plywood, 24 x 24 in.
Wesley Clark
The Girl Inside, 2016
Gelatin Printing, Conte, Relief, Hand-Stitching, Decorative Papers, 65 x 48 in. framed
Delita Martin
Blue Dress and Colored Dreams, 2015
Gelatin printing, hand-stitched, fabric and conte, 87.5 x 54.5 in. framed Delita Martin
13th Amendment Series, 2016
Archival Print, 33 x 42 in. framed
Larry Cook
13th Amendment Series, Photo #1, 2016
Archival Print 9 x 11 in. framed
Larry Cook
13th Amendment Series, Photo #2, 2016
Archival Print 9 x 11 in. framed
Larry Cook
13th Amendment Series, Photo #3, 2016
Archival Print 9 x 11 in. framed
Larry Cook
13th Amendment Series, Photo #4, 2016
Archival Print 9 x 11 in. framed
Larry Cook
13th Amendment Series, Photo #5, 2016
Archival Print 9 x 11 in. framed
Larry Cook
13th Amendment Series, Photo #6, 2016
Archival Print 9 x 11 in. framed
Larry Cook
13th Amendment Series, Photo #7, 2016
Archival Print 9 x 11 in. framed
Larry Cook
Ain't Nothing Raggedy About This, 2011
Ink, acrylic and mixed media collage on mylar, 36 x 91 in. unframed
Jamea Richmonds-Edwards
They, Them, Us and We Series, 2016
Ink, colored pencil and charcoal on paper, 8 x 11 in. unframed
Images sold separately
Jamea Richmonds-Edwards
Anyone There?, Wakonda Series, 2016
Acrylic, tube and graphite on Wood, 50.5 x 32 x 2 in.
Stan Squirewell
What A Strange Place, Wakonda Series, 2016
Collage, acrylic and graphite on wood, 50 x 37.5 x 2 in. framed
Stan Squirewell
Calling Planet Earth, Wakonda Series, 2016
Acrylic, pigment print and graphite on wood, 45.5 x 39.5 x 2.5 in. framed
Stan Squirewell
Quilted Angel, 2015
Gelatin printing, hand-stitched, fabric and conte, 53 x 41 in.
Delita Martin
It Takes a Nation: Art for Social Justice with Emory Douglas and the Black Panther Party, AFRICOBRA, and Contemporary Washington Artists
September 6-October 23, 2016
Location:
Katzen Art Center
American University
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20016
(202) 885-1000
In the Alper Initiative space, Washington artists respond to the graphics of Black Panther artist Emory Douglas with sculpture, paintings, photography and multi-media installations. The exhibition features Emory Douglas and Howard University colleagues and members of the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists (“AFRICOBRA”): Jeff Donaldson, Akili Ron Anderson, James Phillips, Jae Jarrell and Wadsworth Jarrell. Collectively, they create a powerful lens to the socio-political landscape of the late 1960s and 70s that helps to visualize the 1967 Black Panther Party 10-point platform addressing issues of freedom, employment, economic exploitation, affordable housing, education, war, police brutality, prison, due process, and access.
Artists: Holly Bass, Wesley Clark, Jay Coleman, Larry Cook, Tim Davis, Jamea Richmond Edwards, Shaunte Gates, Amber Robles-Gordon, Njena Surae Jarvis, Simmie Knox, Graham Boyle, Beverly Price, Jennifer Gray, Sheldon Scott, Stan Squirewell and Hank Willis Thomas.
To Be Black in White America explores the politicization of the Black Identity in the United States. From legalized slavery to the most recent, hateful thing that Donald Trump said, a minority of Americans have been desperately and diligently fighting against a White power structure for equality throughout the nation’s relatively short history.
Exclamations comparing today’s events with those of the 1960’s are prevalent—from social media to the May 2015 cover of Time magazine, featuring the Freddie Gray protests. The truth is that we never left the Civil Rights Era completely in the past. Institutional racism and personal vitriol—which we have seen plenty of during the presidential campaigns—have always been present. They crop up when vile words provoke violence or when an act of violence incites protests.
While the subject matter surrounding White power structures is as vast as the Middle Crossing, the artists featured in this exhibition are able to identify and clearly express difficult but highly specific aspects of this struggle.
Galerie Myrtis and this exhibition are part of the 2016 Artscape Gallery Network
To Be Black in White America explores the politicization of the Black Identity in the United States. From legalized slavery to the most recent, hateful thing that Donald Trump said, a minority of Americans have been desperately and diligently fighting against a White power structure for equality throughout the nation’s relatively short history.
Exclamations comparing today’s events with those of the 1960’s are prevalent—from social media to the May 2015 cover of Time magazine, featuring the Freddie Gray protests. The truth is that we never left the Civil Rights Era completely in the past. Institutional racism and personal vitriol—which we have seen plenty of during the presidential campaigns—have always been present. They crop up when vile words provoke violence or when an act of violence incites protests.
Galerie Myrtis and this exhibition are part of the 2016 Artscape Gallery Network
About the Artists
Larry Cook was a finalist for the 11th annual Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize. He uses “photography, video, installation and text [to] examine identity, history and cultural symbolism.” His work challenges the notion of a ‘post-racial’ society. He takes a critical look at the “complex conditions of Black Americans.” The videos in this exhibition specifically examines Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of an integrated US, as expressed by his “I Have a Dream” speech and how far we have drifted from that vision.
Wesley Clark often focuses on the experience of young, Black males in America and the African Diaspora. His repeated use of targets in his art expresses the target that young, Black men feel is on them—asking them to behave a certain way, expecting them to fail and punishing them when they do. The works in his Open Season series are titled with the initials and age, date and state of death in, what Clark calls, “excessive response” incidents. Beginning with Trayvon Martin, Clark is tracking the Black men and women killed by police and other White “authorities.” While his subject matter is somber, the colorful tapestry created by Clark’s targets expresses the beauty of the people lost to such violence.
Linda Day Clark “is a community advocate working for change as an artist, educator and scholar.” Day Clark’s photograph North Avenue No. 24, from 1993, shows the then and continuing prevalence of and preference for the classic, White, blonde Barbie® doll. In Day Clark’s photograph, a young, Black girl smiles ear-to-ear as she shows off a doll in clothes and hairstyling that she has made herself. Earlier this year—over 20 years after Day Clark took her photograph on nearby North Avenue—Mattel® toys released Barbie® dolls with more varied appearances but whether they will take root with similarly diverse girls is yet to be determined.
Oletha DeVane is an accomplished multimedia artist who works in painting, printmaking, sculpture and video, often combining these elements in installations. Her influences include her faith, Greek mythology, Yoruba religion and biblical references. In this exhibition, she explores the ordeal of Henry “Box” Brown, the man who mailed himself to freedom in over a decade before the American Civil War.
Following the shooting of Trayvon Martin in 2012, the slain teenager’s grey hoodie became an icon for racial profiling and wrongful death. Nehemiah Dixon III continues this conversation in his Suit of Armor series. He dipped hoodies in black epoxy resin and allowed them to cure so that they appear to contain a body. They are solid but ghostly. Their color assumes skin tone. They look like they should be protective, but we know that they are not. They look like they are being worn by a body, but that person is gone. Dixon’s hoodies are symbols of strife, loss, grief and mourning.
In 1997, Susan Goldman, a printmaker, began a series of work featuring the ‘Hottentot Venus.’ Saartjie “Sarah” Baartman, a Khoikhoi woman from South Africa spent her adulthood displayed as a spectacle in 19th century human zoos. Even after her death, parts of her body were on display at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris until the 1970s. Her body was finally returned to South Africa and laid to rest in 2002. Although Baartman never came to the US, she is emblematic of the exploitation of the Black [especially female] body in both human zoos and modern media.
All of Curlee Holton’s prints featured in this exhibition were made in the early 1990s, but are so relevant to today’s racial climate that they could have been pulled, hot off the press yesterday. Man Man Meaning 1 and 2 speak to a shared belief in Christianity, but very different interpretations between White Supremacists and African Americans. Shoot’em Up provides images of Black-on-Black violence, but the red tip of the gun reminds us of the toy that 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot and killed by the Cleveland Police for carrying in a park. Promise reminds us of the numerous young men, with big dreams for the future, who have been taken by gun or, specifically, police violence.
Wayson R. Jones is a multimedia painter of highly abstracted, very tactile and largely black-and-white portraits. Jones “is influenced by the sense of gesture, space and spontaneity in Abstract Expressionism.” The portraits are not literal, but combine “image, memory and emotion” through planned and chanced processes of painting. He captures the essence of people: the martyred status of murdered by police; the bars seared onto the image of non-violent prisoners incarcerated in the War on Drugs; the families, friends and communities crying out for justice; the weight of the expectations on this country’s first Black president.
Jeffrey Kent is a mixed media artist who works primarily in painting but also creates exquisite sculptural works. His “recent artworks reflect critically on the way mass media is used to convey social agenda.” He ranges in imagery from the Civil Rights Movement to contemporary media representations of African-American boys and men as ‘punks.’ His frequent use of backwards text forces the viewer to experience the “disenfranchisement, separation and humiliation” of those who have trouble with words on a daily basis.
Wendel Patrick is a photographer and musician who works with ambient sound. He collaborates with WYPR’s Aaron Henkin on the “Out of the Blocks” series, which—originally aired as one hour of radio—focuses on one Baltimore block at a time through recordings, interviews, photography and video. Patrick’s photography in this exhibition highlights Baltimore’s youth culture, last year’s racially-charged protests and definitions of masculinity.
Jamea Richmond-Edwards is well known for her images of women, elevated by halos in collage and drawing. In recent years, she has also begun working on extremely subtle, black-on-black drawings, occasionally highlighted with white conté crayon. Despite the subtlety of her technique, Richmond-Edwards creates powerful images, such as Guns, Bubbles and Black Power, which is a vision of powerful, Black, female autonomy.
Stephen Towns highlights the cliché of a ‘post-racial’ America by responding to issues within African-American culture. In this exhibition, his painting I Wish It Were That Easy celebrates African-Americans’ ability to vote but recognizes that “changes in leadership and policy can be slow.” During this election season, many people still find themselves disenfranchised or meeting resistance in exercising their right to vote. Seeing these experiences, Towns seeks to “create beauty from the hardships in life.”
Larry Cook is a finalist for the 11th annual Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize. He uses “photography, video, installation and text [to] examine identity, history and cultural symbolism.” His work challenges the notion of a ‘post-racial’ society. He takes a critical look at the “complex conditions of Black Americans.” The videos in this exhibition specifically examines Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of an integrated US, as expressed by his “I Have a Dream” speech and how far we have drifted from that vision.
Wesley Clark often focuses on the experience of young, Black males in America and the African Diaspora. His repeated use of targets in his art expresses the target that young, Black men feel is on them—asking them to behave a certain way, expecting them to fail and punishing them when they do. The works in his Open Season series are titled with the initials and age, date and state of death in, what Clark calls, “excessive response” incidents. Beginning with Trayvon Martin, Clark is tracking the Black men and women killed by police and other White “authorities.” While his subject matter is somber, the colorful tapestry created by Clark’s targets expresses the beauty of the people lost to such violence.
Linda Day Clark “is a community advocate working for change as an artist, educator and scholar.” Day Clark’s photograph North Avenue No. 24, from 1993, shows the then and continuing prevalence of and preference for the classic, White, blonde Barbie® doll. In Day Clark’s photograph, a young, Black girl smiles ear-to-ear as she shows off a doll in clothes and hairstyling that she has made herself. Earlier this year—over 20 years after Day Clark took her photograph on nearby North Avenue—Mattel® toys released Barbie® dolls with more varied appearances but whether they will take root with similarly diverse girls is yet to be determined.
Oletha DeVane is an accomplished multimedia artist who works in painting, printmaking, sculpture and video, often combining these elements in installations. Her influences include her faith, Greek mythology, Yoruba religion and biblical references. In this exhibition, she explores the ordeal of Henry “Box” Brown, the man who mailed himself to freedom in over a decade before the American Civil War.
Following the shooting of Trayvon Martin in 2012, the slain teenager’s grey hoodie became an icon for racial profiling and wrongful death. Nehemiah Dixon III continues this conversation in his Suit of Armor series. He dipped hoodies in black epoxy resin and allowed them to cure so that they appear to contain a body. They are solid but ghostly. Their color assumes skin tone. They look like they should be protective, but we know that they are not. They look like they are being worn by a body, but that person is gone. Dixon’s hoodies are symbols of strife, loss, grief and mourning.
In 1997, Susan Goldman, a printmaker, began a series of work featuring the ‘Hottentot Venus.’ Saartjie “Sarah” Baartman, a Khoikhoi woman from South Africa spent her adulthood displayed as a spectacle in 19th century human zoos. Even after her death, parts of her body were on display at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris until the 1970s. Her body was finally returned to South Africa and laid to rest in 2002. Although Baartman never came to the US, she is emblematic of the exploitation of the Black [especially female] body in both human zoos and modern media.
All of Curlee Holton’s prints featured in this exhibition were made in the early 1990s, but are so relevant to today’s racial climate that they could have been pulled, hot off the press yesterday. Man Man Meaning 1 and 2 speak to a shared belief in Christianity, but very different interpretations between White Supremacists and African Americans. Shoot’em Up provides images of Black-on-Black violence, but the red tip of the gun reminds us of the toy that 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot and killed by the Cleveland Police for carrying in a park. Promise reminds us of the numerous young men, with big dreams for the future, who have been taken by gun or, specifically, police violence.
Wayson R. Jones is a multimedia painter of highly abstracted, very tactile and largely black-and-white portraits. Jones “is influenced by the sense of gesture, space and spontaneity in Abstract Expressionism.” The portraits are not literal, but combine “image, memory and emotion” through planned and chanced processes of painting. He captures the essence of people: the martyred status of murdered by police; the bars seared onto the image of non-violent prisoners incarcerated in the War on Drugs; the families, friends and communities crying out for justice; the weight of the expectations on this country’s first Black president.
Jeffrey Kent is a mixed media artist who works primarily in painting but also creates exquisite sculptural works. His “recent artworks reflect critically on the way mass media is used to convey social agenda.” He ranges in imagery from the Civil Rights Movement to contemporary media representations of African-American boys and men as ‘punks.’ His frequent use of backwards text forces the viewer to experience the “disenfranchisement, separation and humiliation” of those who have trouble with words on a daily basis.
Wendel Patrick is a photographer and musician who works with ambient sound. He collaborates with WYPR’s Aaron Henkin on the “Out of the Blocks” series, which—originally aired as one hour of radio—focuses on one Baltimore block at a time through recordings, interviews, photography and video. Patrick’s photography in this exhibition highlights Baltimore’s youth culture, last year’s racially-charged protests and definitions of masculinity.
Jamea Richmond-Edwards is well known for her images of women, elevated by halos in collage and drawing. In recent years, she has also begun working on extremely subtle, black-on-black drawings, occasionally highlighted with white conté crayon. Despite the subtlety of her technique, Richmond-Edwards creates powerful images, such as Guns, Bubbles and Black Power, which is a vision of powerful, Black, female autonomy.
Stephen Towns highlights the cliché of a ‘post-racial’ America by responding to issues within African-American culture. In this exhibition, his painting I Wish It Were That Easy celebrates African-Americans’ ability to vote but recognizes that “changes in leadership and policy can be slow.” During this election season, many people still find themselves disenfranchised or meeting resistance in exercising their right to vote. Seeing these experiences, Towns seeks to “create beauty from the hardships in life.”
Artists’ Talk: Myrtis Bedolla and Sharon Burton (juror) moderate as artists share their prospective about the exhibition. Artist participated in a talk moderated by Myrtis Bedolla (main gallery) where they spoke about their creative muse. Sharon Burton (rear gallery) engages the artist on their use of materials.
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Artists Participating in the Talk: Patrick Burns, Gloria Askin, Ronald Beverly, Nina Buxembaum, David Carlson, Wesley Clark, Susanne Coley, Alyscia Cunningham, Jessica Damen, Maria-Theresa Fernandes, Ricardo Garcia, Shante Gates, Susan Goldman, LaToya Hobbs, Ronald Jackson, Benjamin Jancewicz, Jeffrey Kent, Kung Chee Keong, Florence A. McEwin, Bart O’Reilly, Arvie Smith, Lynda Smith-Bugge, Casey Snyder, Antar Spearmon, Shahrzad Taavoni, Terry Tapp, Maxine Taylor, Stanley Wenocur, Sea Yoon and Helen Zughaib
Stars and Stripes: Pride or Despair is a thought provoking exhibition featuring interpretations of the American flag which address the current social and political climate. Incorporating the field of stars and stripes, artists from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds celebrate, challenge, question, and redefine ideologies of democracy and patriotism.
Wesley E. Clark, Bare Witness, Mixed Media on Canvas, 32″x 10″
Featuring: Maya Freelon Asante, Christina Batipps, Susan Brandt, Wesley Clark, Calvin Coleman, Megan Hildebrandt, Cynthia Farrell Johnson, Jeffrey Kent, Ulysses Marshall, Bruce McNeil, Aïdah Aliyah Rasheed, Halide Salam, Desiree Sterbini, Rebecca Waring, Ann Marie Williams and Helen Zughaib.
Artwork
Jeffrey Kent
American?
Acrylic, Oil Stick on Wood Crate
41in.x 27in.
Helen Zughaib
Flag Abaya #3
Gouache on Board
15in.x 20in.
Wesley E. Clark
We Need
Mixed Media on Canvas
30in.x 44in.
Cynthia Farrell Johnson
Around My Way: July 4th
Gouache
14in.x 20in.
Susan Brandt
Patriot Act
Cloth, Wood and Chicken Wire
5'7in.x 23in.x 21in.
Calvin Coleman
A Walk in Her Shoes
Acrylic/Mixed Media
16in.x 20in.
Desiree Sterbini
A Mother's Pain and Despair
Oil Pastels
13in.x 19in.
Rebecca Waring
Spangled
Acrylic on Canvas
Diptych, 18in.x24 each
Helen Zughaib
Flag Abaya #2
Gouache on Board
15in.x 20in.
Halide Salam
Flagellation #2
Collage
23in.x 17in.
Halide Salam
Title Withheld No. 6
Oil/Rubber on Canvas
48in.x 48in.
Ann Marie Williams
Katrinagate
Acrylic and Collage
30in.x 30in.
Halide Salam
Title Withheld No. 2
Oil/Rubber on Canvas
48in.x 48in.
Bruce McNeil
Protecting Liberty and Justice for All
Digital Print
16in.x 20in.
Wesley E. Clark
Bare Witness
Mixed Media on Canvas
32in.x 10in.
Ulysses Marshall
Come as You Are
Mixed Media
24in.x 30in.
Megan Hildebrandt
Megan Aides Francis Scott Key in Penning the Star Spangled Banner
Ink and Acrylic on Bristol
10in.x 12in.
Christine Batipps
A Sixty-foot Fence, Americans to be Displaced
Mixed Media on Panel
24in.x 24in.
Maya Freelon Asante
See Peace
Archival Digital Print
5.5in.x 8.5in.
Megan Hildebrandt
1814 - Mary Pickersgill
Ink, Gouache and Watercolor on Bristol
8in.x 14in.
Cynthia Farrell Johnson
Time to Mourn
Gouache
19in.x 25in.
Wesley E. Clark
Nat's Day
Acrylic on Canvas
24in.x 44in.
Maya Freelon Asante
Us, Me, We
Tissue Paper and Ink Collage
7'x 4'
Ulysses Marshall
Come as You Are
Mixed Media
24in.x 30in.
Aidah Aliyah Rasheed
Hold my Hand for I am Weary
Mixed Media
60in.x 48in.
Christine Batipps
Mattie, a Colored Girl, 1904-Present
Mixed Media on Panel
24in.x 24in.
Halide Salam
Flagellation #1
Collage
17in.x 25in.
Wesley Clark
Time to Talk
Mixed Media on Canvas
32in.x 73in.
Halide Salam
Title Withheld No. 5
Oil/Rubber on Canvas
20in.x 32in.
Bruce McNeil
Protector of Protesters
Digital Print
16in.x 20in.
Helen Zughaib
Flag Abaya #1
Gouache on Board
15in.x 20in.
Artist Talk
New York, New York: The Stop & Frisk Game Board, 2013 by Wesley Clark[/caption]The exhibition presented at Galerie Myrtis, Lest We Forget examines pivotal moments and figures in US history, as well as the everyday occurrences and unknown individuals that have impacted, to various degrees, the African American experience here, and by extension, throughout the world. Too often individuals, movements and ideas are discounted, overlooked or ‘smudged out’ in an attempt to lessen their societal and cultural agency and potency. What has come before is particularly poignant now, more than ever, and continues to reverberate in current issues , both progressive and problematic, such as Black Lives Matter and the examination of President Obama’s legacy in the final months of his administration.
