HOUSTON: Statements - African American Art from the Museum's Collection

Mequitta Ahuja, Off the Edge, 2008, oil on canvas, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by the African American Art Advisory Association. © Mequitta Ahuja. Image via mfah.org.

January 24 - April 24, 2016

THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUSTON

Beck Building, Lower Level

5601 Main Street

Houston, TX

From mfah.org:

Statements: African American Art from the Museum's Collection is the latest in a series of focused installations highlighting unique areas of strength in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Featuring artists who have shaped the course of American art across eight decades, Statements brings together more than 40 works in a wide range of media, from Richmond Barthé’s iconic Feral Benga of 1935 to Mark Bradford’s Circa 1992, created in 2015.

The exhibition presents three interwoven themes, starting with the generation of artists who came of age between the 1930s and 1960s, including John Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, Melvin Edwards, and Loretta Pettway. Viewed as pioneers, these leaders and mentors are celebrated not only for their forward-looking work, but also for the recognition they received that helped break down institutional barriers.

The second segment of Statements focuses on artists who charted America's changing social landscape from the 1950s forward. The rise of Civil Rights is represented through photographs by Louise Ozell Martin, Gordon Parks, and Ernest C. Withers. Other, more subjective examples, reflect both urban and rural experience, including works by Jean Lacy, Lonnie Holley, and Thornton Dial, Sr.

The final section focuses on contemporary artists who directly challenge stereotypes and map the complexities of identity politics through portraiture and narrative. Among the artists represented are Mequitta Ahuja, Nick Cave, Glenn Ligon, and Kara Walker, along with many who have a strong Houston presence today, including Dawolu Jabari Anderson, Michael Ray Charles, Trenton Doyle Hancock, and Tierney Malone.

Exhibit Link

“Statements”, at MFAH, is a remarkable exhibit of artistic steps forward

NEW YORK: History

Mickalene Thomas, Les Trois Femmes Noires, 2006, C-print, Edition 1/5, 47.5 x 56.75 inches. Image via billhodgesgallery.com.

November 20, 2014 – January 10, 2015

BILL HODGES GALLERY

529 West 20^th Street, 2E

New York, NY

From Bill Hodges Gallery press release:

Bill Hodges Gallery is pleased to present History, which features the work of several historic and contemporary artists on a medium that is arguably the most significant to the history of art.

History showcases works on paper and imparts a testament to the medium. Photographs, drawings, lithographs, serigraphs, and etchings by renowned artists Mickalene Thomas, Kehinde Wiley, Lyle Ashton Harris, Carrie Mae Weems, Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, Jacob Lawrence, Chester Higgins, and Roy DeCarava comprise the variety of mediums and artists exhibited.

Mickalene Thomas brings contemporary photographic style to the exhibition like none other. Le Trois Femmes Noires portrays the elegance of ebony skin through form, expression, and the juxtaposition of pattern. Also on view is a drawing by painter Kehinde Wiley, which served as a study for his work Passing Posing (The Martyrdom of St. Symphorian). Wiley’s work often plays on the statuesque figures depicted in classical painting. For this work, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ The Martyrdom of St. Symphorian provides the foundation in which Wiley expounds upon in a work of art entirely of its own respect.

The way in which African American artists have influenced one another, in turn influencing those who come after, is also considered in the curation of this exhibition. Minstrel, a striking photograph created during 1987 and 1988 by Lyle Ashton Harris, commands attention and is about as “in your face” as a photograph can get. Moreover, the late Roy DeCarava’s photograph Untitled (Man with Portfolio), while far less confrontational, still manages to permeate the viewer with its heaviness.

Jacob Lawrence’s artwork is impactful both when examined individually and within the context of art history. Included in this exhibition is a distinctive example of his work, a well-documented drawing, Children at Play (circa 1955). This is a work notably created during a period in between the making of some of Lawrence’s most influential works, evidencing his varying methods of process. Also included in the exhibition is Romare Bearden’s Introduction for a Blues Queen (Uptown at Savoy), a monoprint from his 1979 Jazz series. It is the original used to print the entirety of the sequence, as confirmed by the Bearden Foundation and the ink on the back of the work.

Exhibit Link

NEW YORK: Three Dimensions

Fred Hayes, Untitled (Cityscape #26), 2008, Graphite on paper, 51.5 x 42 inches. Image via thecuratorgallery.com.

Featuring Fred Hayes, Karen Powell and Todd Williams

November 6 – December 20, 2014

Curated by Peg Alston

THE CURATOR GALLERY

520 West 23^rd Street

New York, NY

From thecuratorgallery.com:

The Curator Gallery is pleased to present Three Dimensions, curated by Peg Alston. Featuring the work of Fred Hayes, Karen Powell and Todd Williams, the exhibition shines a light on three dynamic artists and offers an insider’s glimpse into Peg Alston’s long and illustrious career as the country’s foremost private art dealer specializing in works by African American artists.

Peg Alston selected these three artists for their distinct and varied styles and points of view which come together to form Three Dimensions.  “Each artist represents a sampling of art that has appealed to me throughout my career as an art dealer -- those artists who have developed their own artistic language,” says Alston. “This exhibition serves to introduce the works of Fred Hayes, Karen Powell and Todd Williams to a wider audience and I applaud The Curator Gallery for providing this platform.”

Fred Hayes has received much recognition for his cityscapes as well as his portraits, both of which are on display in Three Dimensions.  His cityscapes possess commanding architectural and lyrical qualities and his portraits display mastery in projecting mood and personality. Hayes’ portraits usually begin with an image -- a photo on the internet, someone on TV, or even the memory of a person encountered while traveling through the city. From that starting point, they take on a life of their own rather than becoming exact representations.  Hayes received his BFA and MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and has shown his work in numerous forums, including the Drawing Center, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, The Addison Gallery of American Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Karen Powell, a native New Yorker currently living in Chicago, is also influenced by an urban environment, as depicted in many of her mixed-media collage paintings. The centerpieces of these works are vintage photographs, which serve to inspire the entire composition of each painting. The photograph evokes other image-related responses that she surrounds with colorful abstract backgrounds. The effect is a very contemporary use of a vintage photograph that exudes a personal and intimate appeal.  Also featured are Powell’s abstract paintings, which are equally exciting. Powell received a BA from Fisk University before going on to the University of Chicago for graduate studies. She has exhibited in diverse galleries throughout the country.

Todd Williams is a post-Modernist who was recognized as a sculptor four decades ago. He continues to express sculptural qualities in his mixed-media, two-dimensional wall constructions featured in Three Dimensions. He creates dynamic, textured surfaces with sculpted wooden forms, resulting in complex compositions that create optical illusions and the suggestion of movement. Williams helped break barriers when his work appeared in the Whitney’s 1971 group show, Contemporary Black Artists in America, a significant moment in the national arts scene.  Williams’ sculptures can be seen in public places throughout New York City.

Peg Alston is the owner of Peg Alston Fine Arts. She emerged on the New York art scene in 1972, a time when interest in art by African Americans was limited. Thanks to her keen eye and taste, commitment to her specialty and dedication to educating the public through lectures and activism, she has played a pivotal role in cultivating an interest all around the country for investing in African American fine art.  She has also formed close associations with many of today’s most important African American artists and is the recipient of numerous awards and accolades.

The Curator Gallery is a fine art gallery located on 23rd Street in Chelsea which collaborates with notable guest curators for each exhibition. Founded and underwritten by Ann S. Moore, the retired Chairman and CEO of Time Inc., the gallery’s mission is to bring exposure to hardworking artists, as well as to educate and expand the pool of engaged, serious collectors.

ExhibitLink

CAPTURED: Expo Chicago 2014

Retreat curated by Theaster Gates. BlackArtistNews photo. All rights reserved.

BlackArtistNews | September 22, 2014

Navy Pier is one of Chicago's top tourist attractions. Whether strolling inside its massive but densely filled mall or outside along the 1.5 mile long pier, it's not unusual to simultaneously hear conversations in French, Spanish, German, Mandarin and/or Southern American dialects within close proximity of each other.

The same global atmosphere was displayed at EXPO CHICAGO held September 18 – 21 inside the pier's exhibition hall space. Dealers from around the world represented works by artists as diverse in practice as they are in nationality and ethnicity.

Spotted among EXPO CHICAGO attendees were artists Dawoud Bey, Robert Burnier, Tavares Strachen, Hank Willis Thomas, Mickalene Thomas and Rhonda Wheatley; art collector Eric McKissack; and curators Felicia Mings, Tempestt Hazel and Frank Sirmans.

People spotting aside: it was ALL about the ART and there was plenty enough to gawk (and gag) at. 

Here's a (very) small sample of what was presented:

Campbell's Streetlight by Trenton Doyle Hancock at Hales Gallery (London) booth.

WIND, curated by Yinka Shonibare, MBE at James Cohan Gallery (NYC) booth.

Untitled (The Seamstress) by Geraldine Hamilton McCullough at Richard Norton Gallery (Chicago) booth.

The Jazz Singers by Archibald Motley at The Conservation Center (Chicago) booth.  

44.2258° N, 76.5967° W #6, #7, #8 by Paul Anthony Smith at Carrie Secrist Gallery (Chicago) booth.

Kin XLIII (C.P.T.) by Whitfield Lovell at D.C. Moore Gallery (NYC) booth.

Untitled (Ella on silk) by Carrie Mae Weems at Carolina Nitsch (NYC) booth.

Works by Kehinde Wiley, Dawoud Bey and Chris Ofili included in SHAQ LOVES PEOPLE curated by Shaquille O'Neal at The FLAG Art Foundation booth.

Bartica Born by Frank Bowling at Hales Gallery (London) booth.

Weight of Time by Betty Saar at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery (NYC) booth.

Shinique Smith at James Cohan Gallery (NYC) booth.

SHOW AND TELL: Terry Crews Reveals Secret Art Practice

1995 photo of actor Terry Crews with a work in progress (circa 1995). Image via sikids.com.

Actor shares his art portfolio during talk show appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live 

Text | Benjamin Sutton for artnet news

Published | September 4, 2014

Actor, former NFL player, Old Spice commercials star, and forthcoming Who Wants To Be a Millionaire host Terry Crews has another skill: He’s a talented artist. He revealed as much [during the September 3rd airing of] Jimmy Kimmel Live, sharing his portfolio of photorealistic sports paintings and sketches. His works are reminiscent of sports art giant Daniel A. Moore, though presumably Crews hasn’t faced the same kind of legal hardships as Moore over copyrighted team logos, colors, and other insignia.

Before Crews set out to become a football player, he honed his art craft in a most improbable setting.

“I come from Flint, Michigan,” Crews told Kimmel. “My first job in entertainment, I drew courtroom sketches for the worst murder case in Flint, Michigan history.” His talents with pen and paintbrush were such that when it came time for Crews to head to college, it was his art rather than his athleticism that opened doors. “I had an art scholarship before I had a football scholarship,” he explained.

During his brief career as a professional football player, Crews kept up his studio practice, even depending on it for extra income.

“I would get cut from a team—I played on six teams in seven years, so that happened a lot—so I would go back into the locker room and ask the players if they wanted their portraits painted,” he told Kimmel. “That’s how I survived, I was always on the end of the roster, I was never a big superstar, I was an 11th round draft pick. Humility gets you far. You gotta make some money, you gotta humble yourself…It would literally take me about two months to do a painting, and they would give me like $5,000 and I would survive off that, my whole family survived off that.”

Watch the whole segment with Terry Crews on Jimmy Kimmel Live:

Source Link

DRAWING THE LINE: Artists & Writers in Solidarity with Ferguson

Protesters autograph a sketch of Michael Brown during a protest on August 18, 2014, in Atlanta, Georgia. Image via voanews.com.

Artists and writers give unconditional support to protesters in Ferguson, MO

Editorial statement published August 19, 2014 on redwedgemagazine.com:

On Saturday, August 9th in Ferguson, Missouri (just outside St. Louis), Michael Brown, an unarmed eight-teen year old African American man, was shot and killed by the police. His body was left on the street for more than four hours as riot police were called to the scene.

In the following days thousands of people have protested the latest summary execution of an unarmed Black man. They have been met with police brutality and repression, resulting in dozens of arrests, including the arrests of two reporters and a police assault on one St. Louis city alderman.

The apologists for racism attempted to use the justified and understandable outrage of those who burned a local convenience store to obscure the real criminals in Ferguson: police and politicians who treat the town’s Black citizens like colonial subjects; occupied by military force.

The apologists for racism have aimed to obscure the ongoing wounds being inflicted on working-class and poor African Americans by pretending this is all a misunderstanding; a hangover from days long gone. It is not. These are not merely old wounds. These are new wounds. The wounding has never stopped.

We are artists and writers who, without equivocation of any kind, condemn the police murder of Michael Brown and unconditionally support all the protesters of Ferguson and the St. Louis metro area.

We believe that:

1. The reported murders of African Americans, Latinxs* and other people of color, as seen in the cases of Trayvon Martin and Israel Hernandez in Florida and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, are just the most shocking and visible signs of a campaign of systematic harassment and violence.

2. This is connected to wider ongoing official racism directed against African Americans, Latinxs and other people of color. This can be seen, for example, in the campaign of Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel to shut down public schools in Black and Latinx* neighborhoods.

3. It is connected to the institutional racism that permeates every aspect of society. African Americans experience higher unemployment, higher interest rates, higher incarceration rates, worse health care outcomes, etc. than whites. This is NOT due to personal or moral failures on the part of African Americans. It is the product of the racism of white Americans, politicians, and ruling elites.

4. The people of Ferguson have a right to resist police murder and repression by “any means necessary.”

5. Liberal calls for “peace and unity” in the St. Louis metro area are a mirage. There can be no peace without justice. The status quo is not peace. The status quo is a war on Black men and women.

Artists, musicians and writers have a responsibility to stand squarely with the protesters and rebels of Ferguson, Missouri. Art is an empathetic enterprise. We cannot, in good conscience, make art or write about art and ignore what is happening. We promise to stand, however we can, with the people of Ferguson. We encourage all others to do the same.

No justice, no peace.**

Najjar Abdul-Musawwir artist, professor of art, Southern Illinois University***, Carbondale, Illinois

Samuel Ace poet, Tucson, Arizona
Kelly Ahrens artist, Illinois

Mike Alewitz muralist, associate professor, Central Connecticut State University

Jessica Allee graduate student, art history, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois

Criage Althage transwoman artst and library specialist, Chicago, Illinois

Mike Anderson web developer and designer, Herndon, Virginia

Husni Ashiku artist and filmmaker, Chicago, Illinois

Aliki Barnstone poet, professor of English and Creative Writing, University of Missouri

Crystal Stella Becerril writer, editor, Red Wedge magazine, Chicago, Illinois

BESKONISTe’ art group, Dallas, Texas

Alexander Billet music journalist and editor at Red Wedge magazine, Chicago, Illinois

Robin Blackburn writer, musician, dancer, human, San Marcos, Texas

Lakeetha Blakeney actor, singer, writer, rebel, St. Louis, Missouri

Ken Boe artist and poet, Bisbee, Arizona

Benjamin Bormann poet and producer, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Jesaka Brooks-Ausler printmaker, Carbondale, Illinois

Madeline Burrows actor, Boston, Massachusetts

Edmond Caldwell writer, Boston, Massachusetts

J. Matthew Camp labor activist, writer, Chicago, Illinois

Terre Chartrand playwright, digital media artist, theatre, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada

David Cochran historian and professor, John A. Logan College, Illinois

Matthew Conley poet, arts administrator, Tucson, Arizona

Neil Davidson author and lecturer, University of Glasgow, Scotland

Domingo Dávila artist, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Ricardo De Lima artist, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Ian Deleón performance artist, Boston, Massachusetts

Najee Dorsey CEO, founder of Black Art In America, visual artist, Columbus, Georgia

Timothy R. Dougherty writer, teacher, songwriter, Phoenixville, PA

Hal Duncan Glasgow, Scotland

Laura Durkay writer and filmmaker, New York City

Chad Eagleton writer, editor, photographer, Bloomington, Indiana

Andrew Friend documentary filmmaker, Chicago, Illinois

Monica Hand poet, Columbia, Missouri

John Halle director of Studies in Music Theory and Practice, Bard Conservatory, New York

Joe Hassert poet and instructor, College of Southern Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada

Serena Himmelfarb artist, Chicago, Illinois

Danny Hoey writer and professor, Florida

Ernest Hogan artist and writer, Chicago, Illinois

Ron Jacobs writer and library worker, Burlington, Vermont

Lamar Jorden artist, educator, Chicago, Illinois

Trish Kahle writer and historian, Chicago, Illinois

Jyotsna Kapur professor, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois

Robin D.G. Kelley historian, professor of American History, UCLA, Los Angeles, California

Chintia Kirana artist, Illinois

Wago Kreider artist, professor, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois

Nicolas Lampert artist, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

John Landry poet, San José, California

Morgan Larson performance artist and educator, Dallas, Texas

Sarah Lewison artist, professor, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois

Matthew Limb art historian, writer, graduate student, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois

Mike Linaweaver poet, founder/editor, Strike magazine, Corpus Christi, Texas

Melanie Madden writer and editor, Tucson, Arizona

Brandon Meyers web-comic artist, Denver, Colorado

H.D. Motyl mediamaker, Carbondale, Illinois

Paul Mullan writer, Houston, Texas

Frances Madeson writer, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Nick Mamatas novelist, Berkeley, California

Nichole Nicholson performance artist, Puyallup, Washington

Boyd Nielson poet, Boston, Massachusetts

Robert Niemi professor of English and American Studies, St. Michael’s College, Vermont

Keegan O’Brien Boston, Massachusetts

Jerry Pendergast poet, Chicago, Illinois

Jason Pramas artist and assistant professor of Communications, Lesley University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Bob Quellos architect, Chicago, Illinois

Octavio Quintanilla poet and professor, Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, Texas

Joseph G. Ramsey educator, scholar, & writer, Boston, MA

Rebel Diaz hip-hop artists, Bronx, New York and Chicago, Illinois

Angela Reinoehl art history instructor, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois

Boots Riley hip-hop artist and political organizer, Oakland, California

Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez theater artist, Chicago, Illinois

Dave Roediger professor, University of Kansas

Craig Ross artist, cartoonist, printmaker, maintenance worker, Herrin, Illinois

Katy Rubin director and facilitator, Theatre of the Oppressed, New York City

Van T. Rudd visual artist and social justice activist, Australia

Alexandra Rumsey artist, Louisville, Kentucky

Jacob Russell poet, novelist, & visual artist, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

J.D. Samson artist, Brooklyn, New York

Brit Schulte writer, editor at Red Wedge magazine, Chicago, Illinois

Eric Lyle Schultz artist, graduate student, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri

Matt Schultz artist and professor, Springfield, Illinois

Jase Short writer, Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Nikeeta Slade writer, editor at Red Wedge magazine, Syracuse, New York

Damian “Slimm Goines” Smith hip-hop artist, Washington, DC

John Snowden filmmaker, Chicago, Illinois

Alan L. Stewart writer and activist, Bremerton, Washington

T.C. Tolbert poet, arts administrator, Tucson, Arizona

Joe Torrence artist, Omaha, Nebraska

Anna Maria Tucker artist, St. Louis, Missouri

Adam Turl artist, writer and editor at Red Wedge magazine, graduate student, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri

Bentley Utgaard artist, Kentucky

Richard Wallace a.k.a. Epic of BBU, Chicago, Illinois

Benjamin Whitmer writer, Denver Colorado

Danielle Williamson filmmaker and media artist, Santa Cruz, California

*the “x” in Latinxs indicates that we are inclusive of trans individuals and individuals of all gender expressions.

**to sign on e-mail info@redwedgemagazine.com

***organizations or institutions listed for identification only.

Source Link

CHICAGO: RETREAT

Organized by Theaster Gates

August 22 – October 4, 2014

Opening reception: Friday, August 22, 2014, 5-7pm

VALERIE CARBERRY GALLERY

RICHARD GRAY GALLERY

875 North Michigan Avenue, 38th Floor

Chicago, IL

From press release:

Valerie Carberry Gallery and Richard Gray Gallery in collaboration with Black Artists Retreat, are pleased to announce RETREAT, an exhibition conceived and organized by Theaster Gates.

Artists were invited by Gates to consider how the concept of retreat, either in theory or practice, contributes to a position of strength and perspective in themaking of visual art. Works selected for exhibition communicate both active interpretations of retreat characterized by pressure or force and pssive expressions of retreat that invoke contemplation or meditation. Participating artists – Derrick Adams, Erika Allen, Elizabeth Axtman, Bethany Collins, Tony Lewis , Kelly Lloyd, Valerie Piraino, Mitchell Squire, Wilmer Wilson IV and Nate Young – represent the full range of contemporary art practice in all media, including painting, drawing, photography, installation, body art and video.

A fully illustrated publication with essay contributions by Hamza Walker (Associate Curator and Director of Education at the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago) and Romi Crawford (Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago) will debut at EXPO Chicago, being held September 18 -21, 2014.

Exhibit Link (Valerie Carberry Gallery)

Exhibit Link (Richard Gray Gallery)

MINNEAPOLIS: Radical Presence - Black Performance in Contemporary Art

Senga Nengudi, RSVP, 1975-77. Maren Hassinger performance at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, November 17, 2012.
Photo: Max Fields. Image via walkerart.org.

July 24, 2014 – January 4, 2015

WALKER ART CENTER

1750 Hennepin Avenue

Minneapolis, MN

From walkerart.org:

This groundbreaking exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of performance art by black artists working from the perspective of the visual arts from the 1960s to the present. While black performance has been largely contextualized as an extension of theater, visual artists have integrated performance into their work for more than five decades, generating an important history that has gone largely unrecognized until now.

Presenting a rich and complex look at this important facet of contemporary art, the exhibition chronicles the emergence and development of black performance art across three generations, beginning with Fluxus and conceptual art in the early 1960s through present-day practices. Featuring more than 100 works by some 36 artists, Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art includes video and photo documentation of performances, scores and installations, interactive works, and artworks created as a result of performative actions. A dynamic range of performances, actions, and discussions will accompany the exhibition’s run at the Walker. Catalogue available.

Organized by Valerie Cassel Oliver, Senior Curator, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH).

Radical Presence Press Release

Exhibit Link

CHICAGO: Testimony

July 9 – August 30, 2014

Featuring David Boykin, Krista Franklin, and Andres L. Hernandez

ARTISTS IN CONVERSATION:

Sunday, July 20, Logan Center Gallery, 12-1:30pm

Public Discussion with Andres L. Hernandez as part of the on-going series 

Absence is Fullness: A (E)utopian Assembly

Thursday, July 23, Logan Center Gallery, 6-7:30pm

Krista Franklin in conversation with Alexander G. Weheliye

Wednesday, August 27, Logan Center Gallery, 6-7:30pm

David Boykin in conversation with Nicole Mitchell

REVA AND DAVID LOGAN CENTER FOR THE ARTS

915 East 60^th Street

Chicago, IL

From arts.uchicago.edu:

The University of Chicago’s Arts + Public Life initiative, the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, and Logan Center Exhibitions present Testimony, an exhibition featuring the 2013/2014 Arts + Public Life/Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture artists-in-residence. Coming from diverse disciplines and approaches but finding common ground in their interest in oral culture (both musical and discursive) David Boykin, Krista Franklin, and Andres L. Hernandez set out to develop ambitious new works that move beyond the act of witnessing towards laying truth claims and also grounding fantasies. 

Testimony – which spans the Logan Center Gallery, the North entrance to the Logan Center, the building’s courtyard and Gidwitz Lobby – makes space for critical reflection and ritual. 

David Boykin’s initiative Sonic Healing Ministries “believes in the power of sound/vibration to transform physical matter.  Thought is a finer vibration that has the potential to shape the physical world, as our thoughts eventually manifest in the physical world.” His project for the exhibition, Drone of Testimony: A Vigil Against US Drone Attacks (2014), produced in collaboration with the sound engineer Angel Elmore and the researcher Kasandra Skistad is a vigil against US military drone attacks.  As the artist writes: “The sonic drone that is created out of the testimony of US military drone attack survivors is a vigil against future attacks.  Some people light a candle, we make a sound.  Let there be a fire always burning, a song always sung, a sound always resonating until this madness stops.  Let there be a Drone of Testimony till there are no more drone attacks.”  

Krista Franklin’s ongoing interest in AfroFuturism and AfroSurrealism, has consistently manifested itself through her poetry and collage and she has used the occasion of her residency to extend these methods to the creation of environments, where the energies of multiple authors from the past, present and future combine. “Hybridization is at the core of what I do,” she notes (in an interview with Tempestt Hazel). Developed especially for the exhibition at the Logan Center, her collaborative work, Fantastic (2014), is loosely inspired by the legacy of Detroit's late and legendary producer and hip-hop artist J Dilla. Working with graffiti artists Kane One and Stef Skills, Franklin sets out to produce an environment that furthers an evolving imaginary.

Andres L. Hernandez’s project Benign Neglect (2014) takes its title from a policy term coined in 1969 by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, President Richard Nixon’s urban advisor, purportedly as a means of ‘easing tensions’ following the Civil Rights Struggle, but widely understood as the institutionalization of a slow and deliberate abandonment of predominantly African American neighborhoods to poverty and arson.  Hernandez’s project reimagines the resulting vacant lots of Chicago’s Washington Park, using aerial images, not as pure documents but as ‘plans’ for a Zen Garden. Made from the debris collected on the lots in an ongoing practice of walking as research, Hernandez’s ‘garden’ will be constructed in the courtyard of the Logan Center and tended as a rite, a rhythm, and a prompt for dialogue about a wealth of social and spatial possibilities.

More about the artists and their projects during the 2013/2014 Arts + Public Life and Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture Residency:

David Boykin is one of the most original and dynamic artists in the Chicago music scene. He is a composer, bandleader, and multi-reed instrumentalist performing on the tenor and soprano saxophones, the soprano and bass clarinets, and the drum set. He has received many grants and awards for his talents as a composer. He is the leader of the David Boykin Expanse, founder of Sonic Healing Ministries, and an occasional collaborator with a few other artists. Boykin began studying music on the clarinet at the age of 21 in 1991 and first performed professionally in 1997. Since 1997 he has released 10 album-length recordings as a leader, contributed as a featured soloist to other musicians’ recordings, and performed at major international jazz festivals and smaller jazz venues locally and abroad. As part of his residency, Boykin’s Sonic Healing Ministries has been holding Free Jazz Jam Sessions, each Sunday at 2-5pm in his studio at the Arts Incubator in Washington Park. 

For details visit sonichealingministries.com

Krista Franklin is a poet, visual artist, and performer who lives and works in Chicago. Much of Franklin’s creative output concerns itself with the intersection of the literary and the visual, and often explores the conceptual concerns of Afrofuturism and Afro-Surrealism. Her collages have been featured as the cover art of award-winning poetry collections and exhibited nationally. Franklin is the recipient of Chicago’s Community Arts Assistance Program Grant, the Albert P. Weisman Award, and Columbia College Chicago’s Aiko Fellowship, and she has held residencies at Cave Canem and A Studio in the Woods. A co-founder of 2nd Sun Salon, a community meeting space for writers, visual and performance artists, musicians, and scholars, Franklin holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts. As part of the residency at the Arts Incubator, Franklin created the exhibition Library of Love (February 12-March 31, 2014), working in collaboration with Stephen Flemister, Norman Teague, and Raub Welch.

For details visit kristafranklin.com

Andres L. Hernandez is an artist-designer-educator who works to re-imagine the physical, social, and cultural environments we inhabit. Over the last 16 years, he has worked within a variety of institutions to develop innovative art and design curricula; to assist with research, installation, and educational activities for museum exhibitions; and to organize collaborative, community-based art projects throughout the city of Chicago. Hernandez received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University and a Master of Arts in Art Education degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art Education since 2006. He is also a Lead Artist with the Teens Re-Imagining Art, Community & Environment (TRACE) program of the Chicago Park District, and is co-founder of Revival Arts Collective. His discussion forum, Absence is Fullness: A (E)utopian Assembly, presented in the Second Floor Flex Space of the Arts Incubator, continues through August 17, 2014. 

For details visit whimplaceknow.com

Exhibit Link