SEATTLE: ROBERT PRUITT

PLANETARY SURVEY: New Drawings
March 2 - April 29, 2017

PROGRAPHICA/KOPLIN DE RIO GALLERY
313 Occidental Avenue South
Seattle, WA

In his statement for the exhibition, the artist writes:

"This exhibition is a survey of the last two years of my drawing practice. The works on display maintain the signature stark compositions of my work and usual interplay between notions of futurism, traditional world cultures, contemporary black culture and politics. New to my process, however is a reduction in the literal representation of these references and ideas. Adornments of headdresses, jewelry and costuming give way to more abstract representations in the form of, amongst other things, absurd hair designs recalling the constructions in the work of Bill Traylor, rocket engine call signs as tattoos and geometric patterning evoking masquerade costumes of Central and West Africa. Along with these references to the fantastic, I apply a deliberate and realistic rendering of the human body as the central axis in recovering an inherent Black humanity."

- Robert Pruitt 2017