MSA-X 2019 coverage of Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami
We thank, Mindy Solomon Gallery, and the gallery staff for there kind help, we also thank the artist for there creative phenomena.
"It only counts if you take a big piece" at MINDY SOLOMON Gallery, Miami, 2019
"It only counts if you take a big piece"
MINDY SOLOMON Gallery
artist:
Super Future Kid, Jennifer Lefort, Jiha Moon, Kiyoshi Kaneshiro
There is something really great about bright color. It reminds me of ...candy. Delicious sugary tart confections; the kind with no expiration date, each chew something decadent. Deeply ground into your molars. You just know it’s wreaking havoc in so many different ways but nothing is as satisfying as that moment. The repercussions don’t exist. After the bag is empty, the box unshakeable…then it counts. That big undeniably gargantuan ah oh. I took the first bite and the last bite, and everything in between. I get it now. It’s going to hurt. Call it my chunk of the rock. The American dream presented in high fructose corn syrup. The one I can afford. After all, it only counts if you take a big piece.
Super Future Kid likes candy a lot. She also enjoys play. “Mysteries of youth, spirituality and the occult are all themes in Super Future Kids symbology, and her comfortable spelunking of hypernatural realms is vivifying. The following transmission proves she is a friendly visitor from another dimension, hence the name. Electric pink sugar runs through her veins, and she’s often trailed by a glittery mist. During a recent touchdown in Tokyo, she spared a few milliseconds to share the secrets of her space craft. We spoke via hologram and the artist appeared as what can only be described as a sparkling beam of luminescent jellyfish light.” (Kristin Farr, Juxtapoz) Her work is infused with sweetness and light that exists in contrast to a childhood devoid of fun, growing up in East Berlin before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Artist Jiha Moon also derives a sense of frivolity and humor in her work as she redefines her Korean identity through a Southern American lens. Moon states: For this new body of work I have been focusing on a color theme around yellow. Color has always played an important role in my work symbolically, referencing racial misunderstandings, traditions, and cultures. I have been obsessed about using the color “Yellow”, which can ironically be interpreted as both a racial slur and honoring beauty in different cultures. It can reference Asian people, the color of certain flowers, (chrysanthemum or marigold), gold or blonde.
Big yellow brush strokes can remind people of “blonde beauty” from a Western perspective in women because of American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. In my new painting “Yellowave” I try to create a big wave of emotion, evoking people of my kind and yellow as powerful color.
For ceramic sculptures, this idea continues: I use the color yellow for underglaze and glaze. I am referencing the banana as new iconography (it is sometimes used as a racial slur- referring to second-generation Asian immigrants). I construct and deconstruct vessels that I combined with fortune cookie shapes and decorate with drawing as a storytelling element on my surfaces. I am continuously jumping back and forth between traditional and popular cultures in my explorations with ceramic sculpture.” Moon’s works are both joyous and ironic.
Kiyoshi Kaneshiro’s works look like meringue cookies on acid laced with steroids. Bright pinks, bubbly reds, and exploding yellows foam and drip from barely contained vessel walls. Each form has a bubblegum quality- chewy, partially inflated and gummy. The hard surface contradicts forms that appear spongy and flexible. Kaneshiro writes of his practice: I’ve been thinking a lot about latticework and similar structures in architecture. I’m always super focused in the studio I know these materials I use really closely. Despite how the work may look I’m very disciplined in the process to achieve the aesthetic that the work results in.
I am always interested in the structure and how the structure of an object changes can result in different opportunities for “ornament”. I think a lot about gravity as well. I always think about scale, form, and layering. Creating depth through the process of multiple layers. The work is typically dichromatic, but the colors are very vibrant. I’d like to think that the simplicity in color allows for more observations to be made in surface/texture/form. I like to deal with the material for what it is, use it in ways that make sense. I don’t like to fight the medium i try to make observations on its behavior and make decisions based on that. I try my best not to be obvious and do the stranger things that will result in something different. I have a strong craft background and I try my best not to let the rules of craft cloud how the work is made, however, I think the work is a result of a balance between those rules and the ones I decide to ignore.
Each artist in this exhibition has very specific intentions with their work and the deliberateness in which they create. We look forward to sharing the experience with you.
web site
https://mindysolomon.com/exhibition/it-only-counts-if-you-take-piece/[+] Show More
"It only counts if you take a big piece" at MINDY SOLOMON Gallery, Miami, 2019
"It only counts if you take a big piece" MINDY SOLOMON Gallery artist: ...
"It only counts if you take a big piece"
MINDY SOLOMON Gallery
artist:
Super Future Kid, Jennifer Lefort, Jiha Moon, Kiyoshi Kaneshiro
There is something really great about bright color. It reminds me of ...candy. Delicious sugary tart confections; the kind with no expiration date, each chew something decadent. Deeply ground into your molars. You just know it’s wreaking havoc in so many different ways but nothing is as satisfying as that moment. The repercussions don’t exist. After the bag is empty, the box unshakeable…then it counts. That big undeniably gargantuan ah oh. I took the first bite and the last bite, and everything in between. I get it now. It’s going to hurt. Call it my chunk of the rock. The American dream presented in high fructose corn syrup. The one I can afford. After all, it only counts if you take a big piece.
Super Future Kid likes candy a lot. She also enjoys play. “Mysteries of youth, spirituality and the occult are all themes in Super Future Kids symbology, and her comfortable spelunking of hypernatural realms is vivifying. The following transmission proves she is a friendly visitor from another dimension, hence the name. Electric pink sugar runs through her veins, and she’s often trailed by a glittery mist. During a recent touchdown in Tokyo, she spared a few milliseconds to share the secrets of her space craft. We spoke via hologram and the artist appeared as what can only be described as a sparkling beam of luminescent jellyfish light.” (Kristin Farr, Juxtapoz) Her work is infused with sweetness and light that exists in contrast to a childhood devoid of fun, growing up in East Berlin before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Artist Jiha Moon also derives a sense of frivolity and humor in her work as she redefines her Korean identity through a Southern American lens. Moon states: For this new body of work I have been focusing on a color theme around yellow. Color has always played an important role in my work symbolically, referencing racial misunderstandings, traditions, and cultures. I have been obsessed about using the color “Yellow”, which can ironically be interpreted as both a racial slur and honoring beauty in different cultures. It can reference Asian people, the color of certain flowers, (chrysanthemum or marigold), gold or blonde.
Big yellow brush strokes can remind people of “blonde beauty” from a Western perspective in women because of American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. In my new painting “Yellowave” I try to create a big wave of emotion, evoking people of my kind and yellow as powerful color.
For ceramic sculptures, this idea continues: I use the color yellow for underglaze and glaze. I am referencing the banana as new iconography (it is sometimes used as a racial slur- referring to second-generation Asian immigrants). I construct and deconstruct vessels that I combined with fortune cookie shapes and decorate with drawing as a storytelling element on my surfaces. I am continuously jumping back and forth between traditional and popular cultures in my explorations with ceramic sculpture.” Moon’s works are both joyous and ironic.
Kiyoshi Kaneshiro’s works look like meringue cookies on acid laced with steroids. Bright pinks, bubbly reds, and exploding yellows foam and drip from barely contained vessel walls. Each form has a bubblegum quality- chewy, partially inflated and gummy. The hard surface contradicts forms that appear spongy and flexible. Kaneshiro writes of his practice: I’ve been thinking a lot about latticework and similar structures in architecture. I’m always super focused in the studio I know these materials I use really closely. Despite how the work may look I’m very disciplined in the process to achieve the aesthetic that the work results in.
I am always interested in the structure and how the structure of an object changes can result in different opportunities for “ornament”. I think a lot about gravity as well. I always think about scale, form, and layering. Creating depth through the process of multiple layers. The work is typically dichromatic, but the colors are very vibrant. I’d like to think that the simplicity in color allows for more observations to be made in surface/texture/form. I like to deal with the material for what it is, use it in ways that make sense. I don’t like to fight the medium i try to make observations on its behavior and make decisions based on that. I try my best not to be obvious and do the stranger things that will result in something different. I have a strong craft background and I try my best not to let the rules of craft cloud how the work is made, however, I think the work is a result of a balance between those rules and the ones I decide to ignore.
Each artist in this exhibition has very specific intentions with their work and the deliberateness in which they create. We look forward to sharing the experience with you.
web site
https://mindysolomon.com/exhibition/it-only-counts-if-you-take-piece/[+] Show More
"A Taste for Plums" David Hicks & Ali Smith, Jay Kvapil: "Mimesis", Mindy Solomon Gallery, 2019
"A Taste for Plums" David Hicks & Ali Smith, Jay Kvapil: "Mimesis", ...
"A Taste for Plums" David Hicks & Ali Smith,
Jay Kvapil: "Mimesis", Mindy Solomon Gallery, 2019
JAY KVAPIL: MIMESIS
MIMESIS: The imitative representation of nature and human behavior in art and literature
-Vocabulary.com
Mindy ...Solomon is pleased to present the first solo exhibition in Miami of California artist Jay Kvapil.
Inspired by topography, Jay creates surfaces that can only be achieved after years of making. Dedicated to hard work as both an artist and University educator, the fruits of his labor are clearly evident in his oeuvre. Kvapil writes: “Most of the recent pieces allude to landscape, intentionally so. After all, I grew up in Arizona, which is a land of vast desert landscapes, but it is also rich in intimate pictorial spaces found in small rocks and stones. Some of the pieces have an obvious horizon line, giving them a distant landscape, while others depict an intimate landscape through which we travel – whether literally or in our minds –without a specific reference.
More info https://mindysolomon.com/exhibition/jay-kvapil-mimesis/
A Taste for Plums
Group Exhibition
I find it interesting that I am so often drawn to the work of California artists. Is it because of the light? The vegetation? Perhaps it is the magic of Hollywood, fields of vines, giant, majestic redwoods, or being one of the epicenters of political and social change. I suppose the real reason is the quality of the work.
Ali Smith and David Hicks both live in California. Educated at California State University Long Beach, David was and undergraduate while Ali was pursuing her Master of Fine Arts degree in painting. Like ships passing in the night, neither would know until much later that they would find themselves exhibiting together on the other side of the country. Ali Smith writes about her current body of work:[+] Show More
"Subversive Suburbia", At Mindy Solomon Gallery, June, 2019
"Subversive Suburbia", At Mindy Solomon Gallery, June, 2019 Subversive ...
"Subversive Suburbia", At Mindy Solomon Gallery, June, 2019
Subversive Suburbia
“You’ll be surprised to see what can collect in a mattress over the months, over the years. Every day, every night of ...our lives, we’re leaving little bits of ourselves, flakes of this and that, behind. Where do they go, these bits and pieces of ourselves? Right through the sheets and into the mattress, that’s where! Pillows, too. It’s all the same. He”
― Raymond Carver, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
It all looks good until you open the basement door.
― Anonymous neighbor
Lush plants, manicured lawns, and perfect families. The American dream. Except when it’s not. Dysfunctional families, crazy house pets, and lurking beings- animal, vegetable, and mineral. All of the unseen and unknown. This is the story of Subversive Suburbia. Told through the creative lens of 4 artists and artists’ collaboratives, each artist has a unique and topical story to tell.
Kate MacDowell has spent her career studying and interpreting the animal world and the intersection between man and nature. She explains:
We may also choose to look toward our own destiny as we track early casualties of our transformation of the environment–from the spread of invasive species such as pine-bark beetles to historical extinction events such as the destruction of the passenger pigeon. In each case our desire or longing for a psychological union between man and nature is complicated by friction and the discomforting feeling that we too are vulnerable to being victimized by our destructive practices.”
MacDowell’s sculptures are intricately articulated narratives. The subject of her work is the impact industrialization and gentrification has on the natural world. Whether it is the development of suburban housing communities, or scientific experimentation, animals and plants suffer the consequences. Forced to adapt to diminished food supplies and increasingly populated areas, animals become ever more cunning in their efforts to survive and thrive.
Scot Sothern is an urban explorer. Sothern states: “I grew up in Springfield, Missouri, in the 1950s and ’60s. I left shortly after high school and headed for Southern California looking for sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. I’ve moved around a bit since then, but Los Angeles is home and where I have spent most of my life. My father had a portrait and wedding photography studio so I was in the darkroom and behind a camera at an early age. Photography for me, at that time, was merely bread and butter and had little to do with art. I was groomed to take over the family business and, while that never happened; photography just felt like the only thing I knew how to do. Like a modern day Edward Curtis, Sothern documents his subject matter for posterity. Highlighting the plight of those simply trying to get by.
Generic Art Solutions (GAS) is the collaborative efforts of Matt Vis and Tony Campbell. This New Orleans-based art duo utilizes nearly every art medium as they examine the recurring themes of human drama and the challenges of navigating the social and political issues at play within contemporary society. Using history as a springboard for reinvention, the artists’ re-contextualize existing imagery, often well known and recognizable. Pointing out the absurd and dysfunctional- GAS shows us how very alike we really are.
Jeremy Chandler is a photographer and an outdoorsman. In his newest project he explores themes common to his work- community, nature and masculinity. He writes of his newest project, Invasive Species: The Florida landscape comes alive in this experimental documentary film created by Shawn Cheatham and myself. Striking cinematography and a haunting original score guide the viewer through a contemplative glimpse into the state’s ongoing struggle with the Burmese Python. Told from the perspective of “the local”, Invasive Species explores how pythons were artificially thrust onto this fragile ecosystem and continue to challenge the ethical, social, and psychological paradigms of a people learning to live side-by-side with a new predator. The landscape is presented as a dangerous, wild space that can harbor and effectively conceal an entire breeding population of apex predators, as the python invasion becomes a vehicle to poetically meditate on metaphysical concepts of place, masculinity, and the indigenous.
web site Mindy Solomon Gallery
https://mindysolomon.com/exhibition/subversive-suburbia/[+] Show More
"Dirty Words" Mark Flood, Sam Jablon, Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami 2019-20
Dirty Words Mindy Solomon is pleased to showcase the works of Mark ...
Dirty Words
Mindy Solomon is pleased to showcase the works of Mark Flood and Sam Jablon in Dirty Words – an exhibition curated by Bill Arning Exhibitions
Dirty Words is an exhibition ...of two very different painters’s work from different decades that nonetheless share the strategy of using words on canvas as blunt instruments to both abuse and delight viewers in equal measure. Mark Flood shows his art historically revered yet under exhibited museum/ gallery works from the early 90’in which official communications from art institutions are mutely replicated. These masterworks are displayed in concert with Sam Jablon’s newly minted luxuriously painted text based paintings. Bill Arning, who in his museum years organized the first major Mark Flood survey entitled “Gratest Hits” and the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston in 2016 will balance the two mavericks in one space.
Mark Flood cultivates the persona of a bad boy, priding himself on an aesthetic forged in punk rock then transplanted whole to the world of art. But in fact he is as far from a nihilist as possible manifesting the faith of an enraptured true believer in art and artists. That faith is evident both in his crucial work from the 90s in which he looked critically at the institutions of the art world and in his passion for finding, supporting and aligning himself with the next generation of significant art makers like Sam Jablon.
Jablon similarly plays the part of a rough -round-the-edges nihilist, crudely blocking words like FUCK FUCK FUCK on surfaces of various sizes. Yet looking for mere minutes longer reveal a crazy attention to beauty and a deep care in the ways the paint itself hangs around the armature of written English. Were he just interested in who viscerally turns against and who loves his given FUCKS as much as his more poetic language choices like SUN SUN SUN or Guiltless.
As Jablon is also a poet he articulates the mutuality of language using types of brushstrokes to later meaning as a poet’s chance and tone do during a live poetry reading, savoring the fact that meaning is typified by its slippages.
In Flood’s early paintings in which he focused on all the parts of the art machine that is at its furthest remove from where real art happens, fundraising letters, art world society columns even an honorarium check he received under a name he had in another life, we are amazed how little these nicely worded letters reveal of the raging artist who nearly got arrested for a painting that advised that we should “EAT HUMAN FLESH.”
At the rewards of a life in art vary but these two artists are sharing a venue here as testament to both their mutual respect and affection, but also on their shared ability to remain pure to a vision that seems bad ass but is a pure expression of belief in the power of what art can be.[+] Show More
Lady Parts: Mindy Solomon Gallery
Lady Parts An exhibition about the stuff of womanhood. We measure ...
Lady Parts
An exhibition about the stuff of womanhood.
We measure ourselves by our perception of someone else’s standards. We don’t see ourselves as beautiful. We see ourselves as flawed. We focus ...on our imperfections. Our asymmetry. We feel one way and look another. Sometimes we think our lady parts are inadequate. Sometimes we are not even sure what it means to be lady. In fact, I have left my lady filter at the door in favor of a newer bolder style I like to think of neurotic, self-deprecating empowerment. What are our Lady Parts really? Heart? Mind? Do we cease to be ladies if we don’t adhere to the societal definitions of beauty and behavior? What if we find ourselves without a relationship? How does that impact our “ladiness”?
Artist :
Mequitta Ahuja, Virginia Leonard, Shona McAndrew, Hannah McBroom, Super Future Kid, Nadia Waheed & Ana Wieder-Blank[+] Show More
"Fairyland" Mindy Solomon Gallery, 2021
"Fairyland" Mindy Solomon Gallery, 2021 I see magic wherever I look. ...
"Fairyland" Mindy Solomon Gallery, 2021
I see magic wherever I look. The fluttering of Wings and wands out of the corner of my eye. Butterflies speak to me and tell me ...it’s ok to fly solo. Mushrooms grow wild and spotted in the weeds of my yard sheltering fairies and goblins. Dybbuks creak around in my kitchen- scratching my stainless steel oven and causing cracks in the ceiling. In the twilight of the morning, I see sparkles in the air and feel the presence of kindly ghosts encouraging me to stay in bed. Tricksters lurk in the shadows challenging me to do wrong. They make the lights flicker and drop things in the middle of the night. The dogs stare in the darkness, respectful of the world they can only hear. Between night and day and a world of dreams, a universe exists beckoning me to enter and stay.
There is an unseen parallel space where sprites dwell. Where once upon a time is the opening sentence of every story and tears create streams for sadness to float away. Every closet door is closed at night and shadows cannot be ignored. Listen closely and you will hear footsteps that have no explanation. The footfall too light for a person but definitely not an animal. Whether you choose to acknowledge the unknowable or ignore it, it pulsates and multiplies creating fodder for creativity and imagination. Welcome to Fairyland.[+] Show More
Mindy Solomon Gallery: Natalia Arbelaez, Moises Salazar, Malaika Temba
Mindy Solomon Gallery: Natalia Arbelaez, Moises Salazar, Malaika Temba ...
Mindy Solomon Gallery: Natalia Arbelaez, Moises Salazar, Malaika Temba
Mindy Solomon is pleased to present Movimiento Cósmica, the first solo exhibition of gallery artist Natalia Arbelaez. A cosmic narrative highlighting spiritual ...travel through altered states, the work presented is an homage to Pre-Columbian art and artists. Inspired by the book Seeing with New Eyes by Rebecca Stone Miller, Arbelaez researched the nearly six hundred works from Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru in the Michael C. Carlos Museum permanent collection. Told through the lens of the Shamanic experience, the works become far more than ancient artifacts. Driven by her desire to understand further, Arbelaez has created a body of work that is timeless and spiritual.
Moises Salazar is a first-generation Mexican American. Growing up in Chicago, Salazar experienced the challenges of being accepted as a US citizen. Feelings of otherness and a constant sense of anxiety over their immigration status and physical safety presented many obstacles. Salazar’s queer identity added another layer of complexity to their life. For their inaugural solo exhibition at the gallery, Salazar takes a very personal look at their journey and how their life experience informs their artistry.
In her first exhibition at the Mindy Solomon Gallery, Malaika Temba explores concepts of labor, creativity, exploitation, and beauty. Temba’s multiculturalism and Tanzanian lineage connect her strongly to the history of agriculture, trucking, and trade — activities that are eccentrically traditional, maximalist, and colorful, unassimilated into the mass-produced commerce more familiar to the west. Addressing these ideas in a fine art setting places them within a context that recognizes and celebrates the art that is inherent in all genuinely human activity.[+] Show More
"Genevieve Cohn, Lanise Howard, at Mindy Solomon gallery, 21. Miami
Genevieve Cohn: How To See In The Dark We know it: 20 months of ...
Genevieve Cohn: How To See In The Dark
We know it: 20 months of pandemic, of anxiety, loss, of isolation has been transformative. As Keeyanga-Yamahtta Taylor put it, “life has been ...suddenly and dramatically upended, and, when things are turned upside down, the bottom is brought to the surface and exposed to the light.” Much has been brought to the light this year: our relationships to each other, to ourselves, to our communities, to our work. Maybe especially our relationships to our work.
Lanise Howard: In An Age Of A(Simulation)
Lanise Howard is a visual artist who recently graduated from Otis College of Art and Design. She works mainly in paint and mixed media. Lanise was born in Southern California and raised partially in New York State. Her earliest years were spent from El centro, California to Los Angeles California. The unique environments of Southern California and New York have both shaped the way she sees the world. Her work is usually figurative and often narrative. There is a surrealistic quality to her work, as well as a spiritual feeling that is often embodied.[+] Show More
Mindy Solomon Gallery, Super Future Kid & Yvette Mayorga, and Caroline Larsen
In Caroline Larsen’s inaugural solo exhibition, The Gilded Lily, she ...
In Caroline Larsen’s inaugural solo exhibition, The Gilded Lily, she exploits the still life genre in the most delicious manner. Explosive, over-the-top, layered colorful bouquets spill out of decorative vases ...with enough patterning to make your head spin. In the true definition of gilding the lily, she spoils something that is already beautiful or perfect by amplifying its simple grandeur.
A Walk in the Park
The longest journey begins with a single step.
-Patanjali
Yvette Mayorga and Super Future Kid love color. Pigment functions as an identifier for childhood experience and the sweetness of nostalgia and memory. A Walk in the Park is a connection to the power of the stroll as a way to visualize distinct experiences tied to pleasure and joy brought about through the sights and sounds of the outdoors. The sheer gratification of a sunny day, the memory of an ice cream cone enjoyed on a park bench, and how the inspiration of nature can function as a reminder of childhood and freedom.[+] Show More
"The Universe Within" @ Mindy Solomon Gallery
The Universe within the Universe Within is not a definitive statement ...
The Universe within the Universe Within is not a definitive statement on who women-identifying and non-binary people of the Black diaspora are. Instead, it is a space that recognizes their ...limitless potential to be. Layered, dynamic, complex, nuanced, ever-evolving. A multitude of selves within the vessel of their bodies. Like our universe, mysterious and mystical, their interiority is rich and vast. This exhibition is a privileged glimpse into the wondrous multiformity within the spectrum of Black femininity and queerness. Extending over three rooms, eleven artists take up space, an understated form of resistance. Recurrent themes surveyed in the exhibition include the relationship between self and place, nurturing individual and collective identity, transformation, celebration, survival, ancestral lineages, navigating the problematic expectations and violence imposed on their bodies, and the importance of reclaiming childhood. The artists of The Universe Within use clay as their primary vehicle for storytelling. An ancient and elemental medium, long marginalized in the art world. Parallelly, the field of studio ceramics has notoriously underrepresented Black artists for decades, especially those who are women-identifying and non-binary. However, the sculptures and vessels, both abstract and figurative, created by the artists of The Universe Within demonstrate that clay—which is capable of impressive transfiguration—is an effective tool for empowering their narratives in their quest for liberation, connection, and beauty.[+] Show More
Basil Kincaid: All in One Feeling, and Donté Hayes: Future Artifacts, at Mindy Solomon Gallery
Basil Kincaid: All in One Feeling, and Donté Hayes: Future Artifacts, ...
Basil Kincaid: All in One Feeling, and Donté Hayes: Future Artifacts, at Mindy Solomon Gallery
All in One Feeling
Mindy Solomon is pleased to present the inaugural solo exhibition of Basil Kincaid, ...All in One Feeling. A significant artist within the gallery roster, his Miami debut is long overdue.
Kincaid has developed a body of work that explores his first love, drawing, and the techniques expanded relationship to painting, textile, and community building. Having formally moved to Ghana in 2020, Kincaid brought with him an open heart and an open mind as well as a need to find and build community. Kincaid’s generosity of spirit and passion for his artistry inspired him to invite artisans from Accra to support his studio practice. Kincaid shared in his artist statement: Each piece, born from an initial drawing on paper that’s then scaled onto canvas and painted in the thread, represents the process-oriented, collaborative, and imaginative tenets of Kincaid’s methods. As the work is drafted, translated, expanded upon, and finished, it passes hands, moving on from Kincaid and into the care of Kincaid’s team of embroiderers working in the Ghana studio. They sew a range of stitches, building textures and sculpting the fabric into its final form, at which point the piece is framed in kente —a significant and symbolic West African fabric that can convey specific meanings and circumstances.
Donté Hayes: Future Artifacts
Artifacts are a tangible history that has the capacity to retain, transform, destroy, erase and evoke lost knowledge. My artwork is informed by researching traditional African heirlooms and initiation rites of birth, adulthood, marriage, eldership, and ancestry which are essential to all human growth and speaks to the greater African diaspora. Along with my interest in history, science-fiction, and hip-hop culture, I utilize ceramics as a historical and base material to inform memories of the past. The handling of clay reveals the process and shares the markings of its maker. By using a needle tool, I create individual marks on the surface of the clay with each strand becoming a collective form. I compare the construction and deconstruction of materials to the remix in rap music and how human beings adapt to different environments and reinvent new identities.[+] Show More
Cleon Peterson: No Place (Utopia), Mindy Solomon Gallery
Cleon Peterson: No Place (Utopia) Mindy Solomon is pleased to present ...
Cleon Peterson: No Place (Utopia)
Mindy Solomon is pleased to present in collaboration with Albertz Benda Gallery, a solo exhibition of works by Cleon Peterson. In his newest show, Peterson explores ...the human condition and the price we pay for joy at the expense of others. Depicted in his signature graphic style, Peterson continues to challenge and engage the viewer to question their own place in the social hierarchy. Peterson writes:
As I was growing up, my grandmother told me, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” For years I thought about this trying to understand what exactly she meant.
The idea of progress drives us. The assumption deep within us is that as time marches forward, technology, science, and politics will make the world a more peaceful, just, and equitable place. Although this story we tell ourselves sounds good, it presumes that we’re all working together towards common goals denying our darker individual and tribal impulses for power and security.
Today we’re confronted with existential issues: Environmental crisis, war, displaced populations, a pandemic, technological revolution, disinformation, and inequity, to name a few.
When unbalance comes, confusion and cultural dissonance prevail. Hysteria and anger become the demagogue’s fodder—allowing despots to sway the public with false sleight-of-hand utopian promises and culture wars. Built-in is always the same problem; if it weren’t for them or this, we could have a perfect world.
Today’s victims are the powerless and marginalized and political and institutional obstacles to absolute power. We see it in language, policy, baseline human respect for one another, our freedoms, and our liberties.
And so, we again find ourselves in a time of evil. I use evil, a word more significant than good or bad. Because it’s only in times of fervor and blind idealism that people can justify this brand of action. It’s easy to be tempted into “The Road to Hell” trap when we see thinking like, “When God’s on our side, we can do no wrong.” Or, if we were to frame the same thought in ideological terms, if we’re working towards an ideal (Utopia) or trying to make the world in our image, we can do no wrong.
After all this time, you would think we would learn from our historical blunders and change for the better. Sadly the saying, “The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.” continues to ring true. And how the idea of Utopia, its Greek translation being “no place,” has become a recurring nightmare.
Peterson’s oeuvre continues to evolve as society moves from one catastrophe to the next. Utilizing a minimal palette to maximum affect, his finely crafted stylized figures and landscapes put single minded focus on the subject at hand. Brutally honest, and without pretense, Peterson proves he is an artist that speaks to society with truth and integrity.[+] Show More
The Mindy Solomon Gallery is an international showcase for contemporary art presenting innovative sculptures, drawings, paintings, and photography.
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