QUASHIE ART

Cecelia Scott: A remembrance

2012-01-27T18:16:00.000-05:00

Cecelia (aka “Ce”) Scott — one of the founders of McColl Center for Visual Art and creative director at both McColl and the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Art + Culture — made news last November after she chose to exit her posts at both institutions (for as yet unrevealed reasons). Her last curatorial work — the exhibition “Converge” by artists Quisqueya Henriquez and Sonya Clark — opens tonight at McColl. The following piece is a reflection of her impact by noted artist, educator and friend Bill Gaskins.

Ce Scott, photographed in front of a piece by artist Thu Kim Vu. (Photo by Thu Kim Vu.)

Most visual arts organizations born in the 20th century are faced with 21st century questions concerning the relevance of art, artists, and arts centers in a time of national, economic, and cultural uncertainty.

With that said, the recent departure of Cecelia Scott from her position as creative director from McColl Center for Visual Art prompted some personal reflections on the person behind the role that few people had proximity to. Much more than a person has left the center of contemporary art in the city of Charlotte — a majestic legacy departed with her.

My association with Ceceila Scott began in 1995 during her distinguished tenure as a graduate student at the Maryland Institute, College of Art. She was entering the Hoffburger School of Painting at the Institute one year after I graduated from there and commuted each week from Baltimore to teach at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. Presently, I am a professor in Art, Media and Technology and Art and Design History and Theory at Parsons The New School for Design in New York.

Since our first meeting, I have been a witness to Cecelia’s growth and development as an artist and an administrator at the McColl Center, as architect of its nationally and internationally noted artist residency program.

Through years of conversations with Cecelia over a variety of issues and ideas related to her duties at McColl and in art in general, I have always been impressed by how inclusive and social her vision is within an arts culture that can become hermetic and exclusive. She is in many ways a practical visionary through how she works effectively with the human and material resources available to her, while at the same time asking: “What is the next level of growth, and how do we get there?”

Aside from being a forward-thinking arts administrator at McColl, Cecelia was also a thoughtful curator who constantly asked provocative questions that sought to challenge the artist — and the audience.

And she amassed a record of exhibitions that have showcased a broad range of art makers from around the world in doing so. In the midst of this intense level of activity, Cecelia maintained her own life as an artist whose work ranges from works-on-paper, mixed media, performance, and the culinary arts.

I know few people who can speak and comprehend as many languages of artistic expression as effectively as Cecelia. Her vocabulary and skills have greatly enabled her dialogues with a broad range of people both in and out of the visual arts.

Most significantly Cecelia possesses an engaging personal and professional carriage, bearing, and integrity that enabled her to build coalitions across a broad spectrum of public and private constituencies that greatly served the Center in its development efforts, and enabled the center to grow and expand its range of activities and audiences.

I was an artist-in-residence at McColl in the summer of 2008. During that same period, McColl President and CEO Susanne Fetscher was away on personal leave until October 2008. The absence of the executive director meant that the workload on the administrative staff significantly increased. For three months I had a view of Cecelia on a day-to-day basis in her role at McColl.

Aside from managing her responsibilities as director of residencies and exhibitions, she was always thinking holistically about the Center — locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally, in the long and short range, and at the micro and macro level — with an uncommon level of detail and scope.

Cecelia was always in the vicinity of the heavy lifting and problem solving that makes McColl Center for Visual Art one of the best residency programs and visual arts centers in the country. No task ever seemed to be above or below her. There are few people in this business that work better with and harder for artists and the their audiences than Cecelia Scott. I left McColl much better for the time I spent in the space she cultivated.

In my view, what she did with the greatest distinction at the McColl Center was raise trenchant questions of both producers, patrons, and public spectators of art that took the form of amazing dialogues, exhibitions, public programming, short and long-range strategic planning and development strategies.

Having observed her management and leadership style from a distance as well as day-to-day, I can say that the departure of Cecelia Scott from the McColl Center will not only leave a huge void both locally and regionally, but also nationally and internationally as well.

What the city will miss will be her challenging Socratic facility, her passion for working with artists, her social and interpersonal assets, her curatorial vision and experience as well as her interactions with trustees, staff, administrators, artists, the community at large and her wonderful sense of humility, humor, generosity of spirit and intellect in the service of the Center.

What must also be said is that it was the vision and wisdom of McColl President Susanne Fetscher who hired Cecelia as a founding staff member of the former Tryon Center for Visual Art as education and outreach program director and for the role of creative director at McColl Center. I have no doubt that Susanne’s wisdom will serve her in finding someone to fill the position formerly held by Cecelia.

Likewise, I have no doubt about Cecelia’s future as a leader and change agent in the art world. With her departure from the McColl Center, however, I doubt that anyone will ever replace her and the contribution she made to the quality of art and life in Charlotte.

Consequently, I have serious concerns about the future of contemporary art in the Queen City.

Bill Gaskins,
New York City

3 Voices Interview

2012-01-24T07:34:00.000-05:00

Finally got my hands on a copy of an interview I did with Joy Vandervort-Cobb at the College of Charleston a couple years ago. Joy is a wonderful and hilarious theater professor with a set of golden pipes. She was supposed to be taking over the hosting duties for a radio show produced by the College and aired on PBS. Joy wanted me to be her first interview - we had a blast and seriously, I could talk with that woman for hours.

New Art - Faces of Color 4

2012-01-22T16:00:00.000-05:00

New Art - Rainbro Row

2012-01-13T02:09:00.001-05:00

If you don't live in Charleston, S Carolina, or have never visited, then this probably doesn't make much sense. It is a cynical take on one of Charleston's most popular and photographed tourist attraction - Rainbow Row.

Rainbow Row is the name for a series of colorful historic houses located north of Tradd St. and south of Elliot St. on East Bay Street just before you hit High Battery. It is referred to as Rainbow Row for the pastel colors used to paint all of the houses. They exemplify everything that Charleston seems to sweat profusely - history, charm, nostalgia, etc., you get the picture. It is an assured stop on the carriage rides.

A little history on the non-historic (via Wikipedia). After the Civil War, this area of Charleston devolved into near slum conditions. In the early 1900s, Dorothy Porcher Legge purchased a section of these houses numbering 99 through 101 East Bay and began to renovate them. She chose to paint these houses pink based on a colonial Caribbean color scheme. Other owners and future owners followed suit, creating the "rainbow" of pastel colors present today.

Common myths concerning Charleston include variants on the reasons for the paint colors. According to some tales, the houses were painted in the various colors such that the intoxicated sailors coming in from port could remember which houses they were to bunk in. In other versions, the colors of the buildings date from their use as stores; the colors were used so that owners could tell illiterate slaves which building to go to for shopping (nice one, huh?).

Perhaps the second most photographed attraction in the Charleston area are the plantations, notably, Magnolia and Boone Hall. The grandeur of those places totally overshadow the squalid little huts known as slave cabins. In fine 'Plantation series' form, I decided that the slave cabins needed to be seen as equally as charming, so through the magic of Photoshop, I added an extra cabin to close the ranks and 'painted' the slave cabins behind the McLeod Plantation (originally whitewashed) in bright rainbow colors. Considering the original Rainbow Row has no real historic value and the slave cabins do, why not leverage the visual value of the valueless to make relevant the truly deserving?

I ought to have T-Shirts made of these.

I agree wholeheartedly!

2011-12-07T11:55:00.000-05:00

Saatchi's scathing portrait of the art world: 'Vulgar, Eurotrashy, masturbatory'

Leading British collector launches surprise attack saying buyers and dealers 'can't tell good artists from bad'

Mark Brown, arts correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Friday 2 December 2011 18.10 EST

Charles Saatchi has launched an incendiary attack on the buyers and
dealers who populate the art world. Photograph: James King for the Observer

Charles Saatchi, the most important British art collector of his generation, has launched an incendiary attack on the buyers, dealers and curators who populate the contemporary art world and concluded that many of them have little feeling for art and cannot tell a good artist from a bad one.

Writing in today's Guardian, Saatchi paints a scathing picture of the contemporary art world and says that being a buyer these days "is comprehensively and indisputably vulgar".

He says: "It is the sport of the Eurotrashy, hedgefundy, Hamptonites; of trendy oligarchs and oiligarchs; and of art dealers with masturbatory levels of self-regard." Saatchi described the Venice Biennale, scene of the world's biggest contemporary art jamboree, as a place where these people circulate "in a giddy round of glamour-filled socialising, from one swanky party to another".

"Do any of these people actually enjoy looking at art?" asks Saatchi. "Do they simply enjoy having easily recognised big-brand-name pictures, bought ostentatiously in auction rooms at eye-catching prices, to decorate their several homes, floating and otherwise, in an instant demonstration of drop-dead coolth and wealth? Their pleasure is to be found in having their lovely friends measuring the weight of their baubles, and being awestruck."

His comments will unquestionably cause waves in a world in which Saatchi has taken a pivotal role.

For some he is the less famous husband of Nigella Lawson but for the art world he is of immense importance. For 30 years he has been a voracious buyer of new art and was instrumental in the success of the Young British Artists movement, buying up the best of the likes of Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin and exhibiting it at the groundbreaking Sensation show at the Royal Academy in 1997.

But Saatchi says he finds the new art world toe-curling. "My little dark secret is that I don't actually believe many people in the art world have much feeling for art and cannot tell a good artist from a weak one, until the artist has enjoyed the validation of others.

"Few people in contemporary art demonstrate much curiosity, and spend their days blathering on, rather than trying to work out why one artist is more interesting than another."

Many will be surprised at the ferocity of his opinions. The Turner-nominated artist Louise Wilson – half of the Wilson twins – said she did not recognise his characterisation of collectors. "Maybe Charles is upset because he is not longer the chief proponent of the vulgarity," she said. "There are more collectors out there as opposed to the late 80s and 90s when there was just one which is a good thing."

But she added: "Many artists and art works have now definitely become a brand in a sense and some people may well go 'I'll have a Koons and a Gucci.' You can see that happening in certain contexts so in a way he does raise some interesting observations."

The curator Norman Rosenthal said it was impossible to generalise.

"It is very difficult to make a good exhibition," he said, "and the real problem is the art world has become so huge. When Charles and I were younger and doing the world of art it used to be much easier to sort it all out."

Rosenthal said Saatchi had put on extremely good shows but also shows that were not so good "and I speak as a dear friend of Charles."

Rosenthal was speaking from Miami where most of the people Saatchi is talking about have gathered for the latest fair on the contemporary art calendar. Rosenthal admitted that if 95% of the art there were destroyed then it would be no great loss.

What effect Saatchi's intervention will have on a buoyant contemporary art market remains to be seen but Sarah Thornton, the author of Seven Days in the Art World, predicted it would change little.

"This is so disingenuous of Charles Saatchi because he is selling art to these people and he is their role model. I find it shocking that he would come out and say this because his gallery has become a showroom for upcoming auction lots."

Thornton said Saatchi had made many millions selling on much of his collection. "He is feeding the people he is condemning." She put his comments down to "misanthropy".
Saatchi has had a London gallery for contemporary art since 1985 in different locations including St John's Wood, County Hall and since 2008 the former Duke of York's HQ in Chelsea.

According to the Art Newspaper's survey, in 2009 and 2010 the most visited UK show was Van Gogh at the Royal Academy followed by five shows at the Saatchi.

In 2010, Saatchi said he wanted to leave the gallery and part of his collection to the nation. A spokeswoman said negotiations to make that happen were continuing.

Expert view: Saatchi's Robert Hughes moment

The first thing to be recognised about Charles Saatchi's Swiftian explosion of rage against the art world is that he is uniquely qualified to say it. The second is that broadly speaking, he is right.

Saatchi is so synonymous with contemporary art that some readers may be baffled by his anger at the current state of it. Surely he is Mr Modern Art? Absolutely, but Saatchi has always been a collector who took risks for artists he loves. His championing of Damien Hirst two decades ago was not an attempt to follow fashion but a genuine act of enthusiasm for an artist widely attacked by critics (then as now) and mocked by the tabloids: he was right.

For me, the moment I first saw Hirst's shark seemingly swim through green formaldehyde at the Saatchi Gallery was when I knew the art of my time had teeth.

Saatchi's brand of provocative art collecting, daring the public to like what he likes, made him the natural patron of artists likesuch as Hirst and Sarah Lucas who, in the punk tradition, did not care what the public wanted and grew great on irritation. Everything is different now because, as he says, there are many collectors, and it's hard to see how they have individual taste or a sense of mission. Mega-dealers such as Hauser & Wirth and Gagosian happily "educate" the tastes of these collectors. Art fairs popularise the idea of art as cool shopping even with those who cannot afford to shop.

Here is the one weakness in his argument. While it is undoubtedly the moneyed global elite and their suck-ups who dominate the art world, there is no revolution at the gates, for art fans from much wider social spheres are sucked into this uncontroversial, irrelevant neophilia.

A broad swathe of the middle class, not just collectors, lap up the videos and pretentious installations he lambasts (he has never collected video), and dismiss any skepticism as "conservative". The art world has taken a lot of innocent people with it on the road to mindless corporate fashionability. It needs an honest critic, and maybe Saatchi's Robert Hughes moment has come. No one can accuse him of being a stick-in-the-mud.

Jonathan Jones

Absolutely Brilliant!

2011-12-03T11:35:00.000-05:00

Address Is Approximate from The Theory on Vimeo.

New Art

2011-12-02T17:47:00.001-05:00

The 'Faces of Color' series adds another image to the growing list.

New Art

2011-11-16T20:07:00.001-05:00

The next installment in the faces of Color series.

Click here to purchase a reproduction

'Malcom X - A Life of Reinvention' Review

2011-11-09T08:40:00.000-05:00

A Man for Many Seasons

by Darryl Lorenzo Wellington

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention

by Manning Marable

Viking Adult, 2001, 608 pp.

Manning Marable’s Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention hit the book stands last spring with considerable buzz, given the allure that accompanied Malcolm X’s life story, as well as the drama of Marable’s personal tragedy. Marable died of complications resulting from pneumonia at age sixty a few days before the publication of his magnum opus. His sudden demise heightened the impression that his Malcolm—the product of ten years of work— would be definitive.

The man euphemistically known as “the Brother X” has become iconic. He has been the subject of a major Hollywood biopic. But his legacy remains contested. Critics and admirers alike pick and choose from among the images of Malcolm X. There is the majestic freedom fighter, admired by Spike Lee and Barack Obama. There is the Brother X associated with parochial-minded anti- Americanism; the race-baiting Malcolm X recently denounced by Stanley Crouch as “a maskmaker from his days as a hustler to the moment at which he was shot to death”; Malcolm the global humanitarian, the symbol of world brotherhood; Malcolm the sectarian, the divisive influence. There is the religious Malcolm, potentially the new face of Black Islamic America.

But there is another Malcolm, the male chauvinist, who bragged in his autobiography of never having trusted a woman, and whose image reified ugly strains of Islamic sexism, as well as its capacity for radical violence. Marable notes, “An al-Qaeda video released following the election of Barack Obama described the president as a ‘race traitor’ and ‘hypocrite’ when compared to Malcolm X.”

Martin Luther King’s career fits easily into the mold of a martyred civil rights hero. He promoted social integrationism and was murdered by a white racist. For most of his public life, Malcolm X belittled social integrationism and was murdered by other blacks in a sectarian feud. Malcolm X’s break with the Nation of Islam defined the final period of his career. But after he put aside the NOI’s half-baked philosophy of “white devils” he still extolled the power behind a collective racial identity. He ultimately “changed,” but to what? There is not a clear version of what the final Malcolm X represented.

Malcolm’s legacy has been interpreted to be culturally black nationalist or capitalist (in the Marcus Garvey tradition of black entrepreneurship) or socialist. His last phase coincided with the period of anticolonialist socialist revolutions in Africa. He identified strongly with Pan-Africanism. But Pan-Africanism has come and gone; where does this leave Malcolm X in history?

A Life of Reinvention is heavy on particulars, or minutiae—a narrative retelling by a zealous researcher. Isn’t this a biographer’s task? Yes, and yet for all that Marable accomplishes, a certain disappointment haunts the reader. A Life of Reinvention may fill in certain blanks and provide salacious details (a normative practice in this day and age of tell-all biographies); it may “humanize” Malcolm X, if you will, but its struggle with the Brother X’s political legacy is perfunctory, while it could have been Olympian.

The primary source behind the multiple constructions of Malcolm X’s legacy is The Autobiography of Malcolm X, compiled over a two-year period from interviews conducted with journalist Alex Haley. The Autobiography has sold millions, its popularity driven by the charismatic power of Malcolm X’s story of sin and redemption, and his conversion from a life of crime to one of political and religious commitment. Haley’s narrative has made Malcolm X hip, threatening, or cool, and promulgated many of the alternative Malcolms. Marable clearly has a bone to pick with The Autobiography, averring that “Malcolm X had no opportunity to revise major elements of what would become known as his political testament.” Furthermore, “A deeper reading [of The Autobiography of Malcolm X] also reveals numerous inconsistencies in names, dates, and facts. [After years of teaching the Autobiography] I was fascinated. How much it true, and how much hasn’t been told?” ponders Marable. But both books relate basically the same story.

Malcolm Little, born in 1925, was disillusioned by life in racist America, and turned in his late teens to a life of petty crime, operating under the pseudonym “Detroit Red.” He served several years in prison. While in prison, he converted to a pseudo-Islamic sect, the Nation of Islam, which promoted strict dietary and moral codes and a racialized version of the Islamic faith. Politically, the Nation of Islam is sectarian and campaigns for the creation of a completely separate and independent black state. He breaks with the NOI after discovering that its leader, Elijah Muhammad, has been unfaithful to the tenets by fathering many illegitimate children. Malcolm X subsequently journeys to Mecca, and rethinks his sectarian worldview.

During his twelve years of subservience to the NOI, Malcolm X’s eloquence and vehemence on contemporary affairs make him viewed less as a religious than as a political figure, particularly noted for his ability to invoke the frustrations simmering in the black ghettoes. He is often viewed with fear that he is—and he encourages the point of view—the “dark side” of Martin Luther King’s benevolent movement, the violence that will break loose after the traditional integrationist civil rights leaders have lost their gambit. But in response to his journey to Mecca, Malcolm converts to Sunni Islam. He accepts that many of his Muslim brothers are “white” and adopts a less militant stance on race relations and social integration, although he still flirts with the notion that it might be necessary for black Americans to construct an independent state. He proceeds to head two organizations, one religious and one secular (Muslim Mosque, Inc., and the Organization of Afro-American Unity) but both influenced by his refined agenda.

Malcolm X now expresses his willingness to work alongside white activists and black integrationist civil rights leaders, albeit for the time being his own organizations will remain black. He is assassinated in a hail of gunfire by Elijah Muhammad’s followers in the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan on Februar 21, 1965.

A Life of Reinvention is a monument to dogged research, primarily inspired by Marable’s reaction against Haley’s book. Let’s enumerate Marable’s amendments to the record, its glosses, and the “smoking gun” of its assassination theory.

According to Marable, Malcolm X exaggerated the depth of his criminal career as well as his skill at numbers running and underworld activities. He describes Malcolm X’s criminal activities as “amateurish” and “clumsy.” Marable writes, “Malcolm deliberately exaggerated his gangster exploits—the number of burglaries, the amount of marijuana he sold musicians and the like—to illustrate how depraved he had become. Malcolm told Haley stories about himself that were largely true, but frequently presented himself as being more illiterate and backwards than he actually was.”

“Detroit Red” was not only a second rate mobster, he may have been a “trick baby” (to use 1950s street lingo). We learn that a character in Haley’s Autobiography, described as an occasional homosexual hustler willing to perform minor sexual acts for pay from a wealthy white man, was in fact Malcolm X. His career as a minor “pimp” included prostituting himself. We are informed that the marriage of Malcolm X and Betty Shabbazz suffered considerable disharmony. Perhaps Betty Shabbazz engaged in an extramarital relationship. Malcolm’s final rupture with the Nation of Islam in 1963 was not solely the consequence of Malcolm’s learning that Elijah Muhammad was a profligate. It was not Elijah Muhammad’s unrestrained promiscuity with his younger, female followers in general that destroyed Malcolm X’ s loyalty and cemented the end, but Malcolm X’s receipt of information that Elijah Muhammad had impregnated a woman whom Malcolm X had dated in his pre-prison years, and whom he was responsible for bringing into the Nation of Islam. The strains of private guilt and self reproach ran deeper than portrayed in the more proper public account.

The biggest revelation in A Life of Reinvention is that Marable exposes the names of Malcolm X’s supposed “real killers”; the five NOI members who plotted and committed the assassination. Regarding the three men convicted of the assassination in 1966, by Marable’s account, all were NOI zealots who had been involved in harassing Malcolm since his departure from the organization, but two of the men may not have been involved in the actual assassination.

The research and detail collected in A Life of Reinvention is impressive. But something is missing. The book provides a great deal, but what is needed today is more than the particulars, and more than assassination intrigue. Rather, the reader needs an interpretation of the historical significance of Malcolm X.

None of the autobiographical glosses in A Life of Reinvention will reinvent the wheel for readers sophisticated enough to read between the lines. There are obvious reasons why, in a book composed in the early 1960s, Malcolm X—whose image was always linked to his patriarchal pride and masculinity—would conceal his alleged brief acquaintance with the feminine role of a prostitute (while being comfortable casting himself in the masculine role of a pimp) and why he would hedge on other personal details. It cannot be insignificant if the New York Police Department corralled and the state prosecuted the wrong men in his assassination, but pertaining to Malcolm X’s legacy, his assassins were still zealots under the influence of the Nation of Islam (possibly acting under the expressed orders of Elijah Muhammad), and the assassination remains the result of a sectarian feud. The arc of the story stays the same.

Marable reserves his thoughts on Malcolm X’s political legacy for a nine-page afterword, “Reflections on a Revolutionary Vision.” It is a dutiful cataloguing of the various legacies: Malcolm X the preacher, the Muslim, the forefather of late 1960s Black Power, the elegant emblem of manhood in a time when black people were subservient, the Pan-Africanist. Yet the question remains: What is the significance of Malcolm X’s legacy today?

All the constructions of Malcolm X reflect the critique of a political outsider. “I’m a field Negro,” he famously said, and a field Negro is three steps away from the master’s house. The position of an urban, black, criminal outsider was thrust on him by the circumstance of his life—later enhanced by his turn to the Islamic faith. But in an act of jujitsu, Malcolm X drew strength and rhetorical resonance from this position.

Malcolm X’s legacy is forever linked in history books to Martin Luther King’s. A glance at their speeches reveals a distinction more glaring than that between their arguments— a stark disjuncture that is still clear when they speak to matters on which they agree, such as, say, the evils of southern law enforcement or the ills of poverty and disenfranchisement. King’s words (“I have a dream…” most famously) speak to what we call the better angels of human nature. They read like sermons because they seem to have been tailored to fit within a decorum or convention that supports such appeals. Their weakness on the other hand may be that when removed from the trappings of decorum—when discussed after the audience leaves the church or the senate building—they begin to seem high-minded, pompous, or out of touch.

Malcolm X stood at a distance from the halls of decorum, and from that distance he was able to issue salvos such as, “What I want to know is how the white man, with the blood dripping off his fingers, can have the audacity to ask black people why they hat him?” or, even after his return from Mecca and his softening on issues of race relations, to state plainly, “I never really trust the kinds of white people who are always anxious to hang around Negroes, or Negro communities.” The words of an outsider may seem uncouth, unjust, hatemongering, or unhelpful, but they speak—in a way that King’s expressions of decorum cannot—to his period’s visceral tensions of blacks in opposition to whites, and vice versa. The speech of the outsider is privileged to flirt with extremism (anti-Americanism) and shrug “C’est la vie” in the wake of a national tragedy, as Malcolm X did in his “chickens have come home to roost” quip after John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Hence the divisions that roughly characterize latter-day criticisms of his legacy: admiration for his daring, condemnation or defensiveness over his philosophy of armed self-protection, and concern over his most extreme pronouncements.

Malcolm X initially belittled social integrationism as too little, too late, specifically in its lack of ameliorative value for the black underclass, but his greater humanitarianism and the lack of progressive solutions available to one who maintains a completely sectarian position compelled him toward some form of amelioration and participation in the body republic. This is the beginning of the splintering of versions of Malcolm X’s legacy. But it is the beginning of the deepening in his resonances that led to his iconic status.

The outsider who begins to find a way into a civic dialogue is not simply making concessions. He has higher ambitions. The willingness to participate is dependent upon a give and take. It is his hope that this approach can bring his position and his insights into the public dialogue. Malcolm X sought alliances with international Pan-African movements, but with the understanding that his organizations would be based in the United States and hope that his international alliances could influence the dialogue within the United States. Or rather, that his organizations might advance radical objectives by democratic argument and persuasion. This is seen by his choice in his last year to divide his energies into two organizations—one secular and the other religious. Particularly given his past, participation in the American democratic process would be assisted by making a traditional demarcation between “church and state” his religious and his political principles.

There is no doubt that Malcolm X’s footing in participatory democracy was tenuous and provisional. He maintained considerable skepticism toward the body republic and could easily have lost faith and returned at some point to a sectarian position. At the time of his death, Malcolm X was working his way through strains of Pan-Africanism, black nationalism, socialism—and his past as an emblem of sectarian threat—toward a participatory outsider politics that would have been a greater challenge to the body politic than one dependent upon menace. It is a sectarian threat to intimidate, or hint at breaking away from the body republic, but it can also be a threat (in the sense of challenging the democratic process, not the electorate itself) to legitimize perspectives that the body republic has stereotyped. In the late 1960s, the Black Panthers were inspired by Malcolm X’s example, but resorted to emphasizing the militancy that he was moving away from in the interests of democratic persuasion.

Haley’s Autobiography captured Malcolm X’s mythic dimensions, but his myth is dated— and Marable does not quite succeed in updating it. “Why Malcolm X today?” Pan- Africanism is over with, and black separatism (or any other ethnic group’s separatism) is clearly impractical. It may be that the Brother X’s greatest legacy today is that he represented the possibility of a participatory politics of the underclass. The Brother X’s identity was always tied to his reputation as a receptacle and conduit of “street wisdom.” And more so than any major figure since his death he articulated a politics not for, but of the underclass, a politics that promoted the perspective of the underclass as being as legitimate as that of the middle class or the wealthy, and that refused to treat poverty as a badge of shame (something like what the gangsta rappers who routinely call out Malcolm X’s name struggle to cultivate). The arc of this journey from the outer borders of society to the conceptualization of provisional participation is the story arc Malcolm X bequeathed us, and is a better answer to the question, “Why Malcolm today?” than any of the biographical trivia or assassination intrigue underscored in Marable’s A Life of Reinvention.

Darryl Lorenzo Wellington is a writer living in Santa Fe,New Mexico.

New Art - Faces of Color Series

2011-11-03T19:54:00.003-04:00

As many of you may know by now, I tend to paint in spurts and change my style of art and ideas about as often as I change my underwear. Well, here's another pair to try on. These next few images that I will be delivering over the coming weeks were actually inspired by my good friend Tyrone Geter. Tyrone is a master with charcoal and often uses them on dark backgrounds. I love the effect he was achieving but charcoal is a medium I have zero love and tolerance for - way too messy for me to fool with. I decided to do my version of the charcoal look with oil which I call 'charcoil'. (Use that and I will sue!) Each of the images will be on a different background color to mimic the various color papers that charcoal is often used on.

I recently was working on the Plantashun series that included some realistic images of actual slaves. I loved the look of despair and strength on the faces and wanted to continue with them. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a lot of detail out of the faces in many of the century old photos, so I decided to start using live models. The lady below is actually my long time neighbor, Ms. Margaret Sass. I love her face and asked if I could take her picture months ago, but didn't know what to do with the image afterwards and stored it away. When this idea came to me I knew she was the perfect start. The next image is that of another neighbor who lives across the street. I'll have that one ready sometime next week.

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New Commissioned Art

2011-10-24T20:49:00.000-04:00

The portrait of his lovely wife, Gina Torres, was commissioned by Laurence Fishburne earlier this year. It was supposed to be presented to her on their anniversary (Sept. 22), but alas, they are both successful actors and as such have overlapping schedules. He finally presented it to her yesterday and thank goodness, she loved it. Whew! Portraits are difficult business. The margin for error is great and a high profile commission like this keeps the artist on pins and needles until you get the thumbs up from commissioner and recipient. I'm not well known as a portrait artist but I do enjoy the challenge.

"Portrait of Gina Torres"

Oil on Linen

54" x 42"

(select to enlarge)

Art featured on Black Art in America website!

2011-10-16T19:56:00.000-04:00

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Black Art In America

Article - Biennial Showcases Contemporary S.C. Art

2011-10-05T13:59:00.000-04:00

Issue #24.40 :: 10/05/2011 - 10/11/2011

Biennial Showcases Contemporary S.C. Art

701 CCA Aims to Fill Void Left By Demise of Triennial

BY JEFFREY DAY

When the Triennial was done away with several years ago, an outcry arose in the arts community. No one was louder about the demise of the every-three-year South Carolina contemporary art show than Wim Roefs, a Columbia gallery owner. When the 701 Center for Contemporary Art opened in 2008 and Roefs became its board president (and de facto director), he stated the center’s commitment to creating a show to replace the Triennial.
The first one of those — a biennial rather than a triennial — opens this week. The exhibition by 24 artists will be broken into two parts, the first opening Friday, Oct. 7, from 7 to 9 p.m. and the second starting Nov. 17.

“It was really a great loss,” says Roefs of the Triennial’s demise. “They were great shows and a place to discuss what was going on in the arts.”

Biennial 2011 includes artists from Hilton Head to Spartanburg, painters and potters and sculptors, the latter working with everything from found objects to cut-up blue jeans to books. Each artist will show two to five pieces. Participants range from such well-established and familiar artists as Mary Edna Fraser and Jim Connell to others who are young and mostly unknown. They range in age from 23 to 76.

“This is better than a solid list,” Roefs says. “There are established artists, but the younger ones are nothing to sneeze at — these are artists with great potential.”

He’s not tooting his own horn, because he didn’t select the artists. The contemporary art center asked a dozen curators, educators and artists from throughout the state to nominate two artists for the Biennial. Among the nominators were Brian Lang, decorative arts curator at the Columbia Museum of Art; Leo Twiggs, an artist and retired professor and museum director at S.C. State University; Tom Stanley, artist and chairman of the Winthrop University Art Department; and Tyrone Geter, artist and director of the Benedict College art gallery. Midlands artists in the show are James Busby, Peter Lenzo, JRenee, Lucy Bailey and Jim Arendt (who recently moved to Conway.) Three artists are from the Upstate, two from Orangeburg, five from Charleston, six from Rock Hill and three from other places in the state

Several of the artists were in one or more of the five Triennial exhibitions held from 1992 to 2004, including mixed media artist Aldwyth from Hilton Head; ceramic artists Jim Connell of Rock Hill, Alice Ballard of Greenville and Peter Lenzo of Columbia; and Charleston resident Colin Quashie, who explores political and social issues with bite and humor and a wide range of mediums. Others who have long been working in the state, such as Shaun Cassidy of Rock Hill and Winston Wingo of Spartanburg, will be in the Biennial. Among the lesser known artists are several who have solid careers, including James Busby of Irmo, who has had several exhibitions at the Stux Gallery in New York, and Stacey Davidson, who just began teaching at Winthrop University and who shows at the Marlborough Gallery in New York and London.

“It felt funny nominating artists who had been in the Triennial, but some of them are producing the best art in their lives,” says Mark Sloan, director of the Halsey Institute and one of the nominators. “Some of these younger artists are kicking butt and taking names, and they need a leg up that a show like this can provide.”

Frank McCauley, an artist and assistant director of the Sumter Gallery of Art, felt it was important to pick younger artists. He selected Jon Prichard, a Winthrop University graduate and instructor who paints, draws, sculpts and does performance art, and Thomas Whichard, a painting and sculpture student at Winthrop.

“Both are really great artists, and it will be good for them to be in a big show like this,” he says.

Brian Lang of the Columbia Museum of Art came to the city when the Triennial was already history and he’s not an expert on South Carolina art, but he says such a show is important for the state.

“Any state benefits from taking the pulse of the contemporary art scene,” Lang says.

His two picks — Busby and Fraser — are very different from one another. Busby does minimalist, monochromatic paintings that border on sculpture, and Fraser creates large, colorful batik paintings on fabric based on aerial photographs.

The Triennial, which included 20 to 35 artists each time, was organized by the S.C. Arts Commission and the S.C. State Museum, where it was shown. The Arts Commission decided it didn’t have the time or resources to continue the show and the State Museum opted not to continue the exhibition on its own.

Exhibitions like the Triennial or Biennial that attempt to give a thorough view of contemporary art are often widely criticized — for being too radical, for being too safe, for emphasizing what’s hot instead of what is lasting, for who got in and who didn’t. One thing they almost always do is generate a lot of discussion.

“From the Whitney Biennial on down, these sorts of shows are fraught from the beginning,” says Sloan. “There are some glaring omissions and I have my issues with how it was done this year, but they’re trying to do something and it is a valuable exercise, so I’m a full supporter of it.”

New Art - Plantation Digest

2011-10-04T21:38:00.000-04:00

I decided to combine what were stand alone panels into one cohesive piece. The initial idea was to create a faux magazine that would have been read by plantation owners had it existed. After looking at a few 'lifestyle' magazines, I noticed that many had advertisements up front followed by table of contents, editor's note, etc. Since I had already created the advertisements (all of the J. CROW pages), I decided to redo them on thinner panels and hinge them together to resemble a magazine layout. I'm quite happy with the outcome and who knows, I may just continue to expand upon the piece by the time it makes it to the exhibition at REDUX in March.

I needed to submit work for the Biennial that was newer than 3 years old. Since I had been working on the UNC Mural much of that time and then went headlong into the plantation pieces, I decided to preview one of the pieces in the Biennial. It will interesting to see what kind of a response it garners.

Plantation Digest
32" x 44" (each panel)

Gel Transfer and Acrylic on Birch Plywood

INDIVIDUAL PANELS:

Fine Art Reproductions Sale

2011-10-04T14:30:00.000-04:00

For a limited time (maybe until Christmas), buy three prints at a reduced price. Click here to order.

Biennial 2011 Essay

2011-10-04T09:58:00.001-04:00

THE POST-MODERN SENSE OF REGIONALISM
A Shift Of Consciousness
By Mary Bentz Gilkerson

Statewide art exhibitions like the TRIENNIAL, produced by the South Carolina Arts Commission and the South Carolina State Museum between 1992 and 2004, refl ect more than current trends in the state’s contemporary art community. They reveal deeper shifts in how the culture of the area perceives itself. Even as recently as the TRIENNIAL 2004 there was degree of self-consciousness about the way that both the curators and artists approached their regional position. The result was the selection of work that for the most part focused on the universal and mainstream rather than a regional sense of place.

In the intervening seven years the South Carolina art community has become much more comfortable with a greater postmodern sense of regionalism: a strong connection to place revealed in the way that artists freely mine themes and media that have been considered traditional for the area – landscape and figurative narration, clay and craft traditions – combined with an awareness of the national and international art dialogue. This initial Biennial, produced by 701 Center for Contemporary Art, reflects that shift of consciousness.

At its most fundamental level, place is topographic landscape, a mapping of geographical features that illustrates a culture’s relationship to the space it inhabits. Working from aerial photographs, Mary Edna Fraser maps the South Carolina coastline from great perspective distance, using traditional batik processes on oversized silk panels. Jarod Charzewski explores landscape topographically as well, creating installations that use precisely folded and stacked clothing or books to mimic the undulations of the earth and its interaction with man-made structures. Kim LeDee creates sculptural installations from carefully woven constructions that move from the flat surface of the wall into the gallery. Small plastic toys fill her miniature environments revealing the absurdities of communal conflict.

Landscape and place extends beyond topography in the multimedia installations of Gwylene Gallimard and Jean-Marie Mauclet. Their work is deeply rooted in the particularities of a community, going beyond simple documentary or social commentary to explore the complex intersections of place with traditions, histories, stories and spirit. Their process of working intimately within a community gives their work insightful depth regarding the paradoxical nature of human relationships.

Figuration and narration go hand-in-hand to invoke personal memory, trauma and history as well as direct challenges to examine our communal relationships to issues of race and sexuality. Winston Wingo’s sculptures use combinations of organic and geometric shapes to address the relationship of humanity to nature and technology. But they also address the dehumanizing factors that have effectively “erased” minorities from the broader dialogue within the culture.

What is subtle in Wingo’s work is exquisitely direct in Damond Howard’s and Colin Quashie’s.

With wit and passion Quashie uses the language of media marketing to dissect stereotypical views of cultural relationships and expose them as separatist constructs. He uses the seduction promised by contemporary advertising to lure the viewer into a conversation that can be haunting in the depth of the issues raised.

Howard incorporates some of the most heinous examples of 19th century illustrations and caricatures into self-portraits that reflect on the conflicted sense of identity and self that dominant culture imposes on minorities – in his case, an African-American man from South Carolina. Like Quashie, he uses humor to leaven the harshness of the commentary without diluting his message.

The narrative is also very personal in the work of Aldwyth and Peter Lenzo. While the literal figure is absent from many of Aldwyth’s works, it is implied through the multiple narratives she creates in her collages and sculptures. Although she resists categorization and rejects labels outright, the many little biographies that fill any one of her works form larger statements that are certainly astute social observation if not commentary. Lenzo’s clay sculptures are heavily embellished reliquaries of triumph over suffering. Building on the South Carolina craft tradition of the face jug, Lenzo creates self-portraits that contain all the pathos of the human condition.

Jim Arendt, JRenée, Stacey Davidson, Karen Ann Myers, Jon Prichard and Lucy Bailey pursue shared communal narratives, both traditional ones and those created by the disjunctions of contemporary culture. Arendt uses multiple layers of faded denim, the very fabric of the working class, collage together to explore connections to work and place. Using a similar narrative tradition, JRenee’s vivid paintings on glass contain echoes of Romare Bearden’s collages and cutouts and pull from the shared myths and traditions of the African-American community of New Orleans. Lucy Bailey’s figurative work is a quiet counterpoint, exploring the human body using forms that have an archetypal, archaic quality.

Davidson sculpts dolls that she then arranges in scenarios. These fictional narratives become the subjects of her subsequent paintings. There is an uncanny quality to the painted dolls, a level of fiction within fiction, both innocent and vaguely disturbing. Myers’ subjects inhabit a similarly charged psychological space, one that focuses on our cultural obsession with youth, beauty and glamour. The stories she tells of cocktail parties and power games are off set by a deep sense of loneliness. That absence is filled in Prichard’s drawings and performances by the ceremony and ritual of the fictitious society he creates his work around.

Thomas Whichard and Marshall Thomas create very ambiguous, loosely defined narratives based on the dialogue between artist and model. The stories are potential fictions, slices or moments, removed from their contexts.

Chris Todd’s sculptures imply a human presence through her use of exaggerated and distorted chair forms as surrogates. There is a whimsical quality to the sculptures that is off-set by the precarious nature of the predicaments that she places them in.

Abstraction, the modernist ideal, has become one of the many genres available to contemporary artists. Alice Ballard and Jim Connell both reference ceramic craft traditions in creating organic, abstracted works that move beyond traditional vessels to function as sculptural objects.

Shaun Cassidy, James Busby and Katie Walker pursue an art of pure abstraction where the subtle relationships of shape, surface and color invite contemplation. Busby and Cassidy reduce or eliminate many of the formal elements to focus our attention on the remaining ones. Mike Gentry’s grid-based collages give an aesthetic order to the jumbled visual bombardment of junk mail advertising and transform these fragments of media culture into relatively benign colors and textures.

The South Carolina Biennial 2011 reflects a shift in consciousness and perspective, a step away from the mainstream/regional dialectic. The sense of regional inferiority seems to be giving way to a synthesis of regional concerns – landscape and figurative narration, clay and craft traditions – with a more global awareness of the interconnection of all places to each other.

......................................................

Mary Bentz Gilkerson is an artist, critic and curator. Her reviews regularly appear
in the Free Times weekly in her hometown of Columbia, S.C., where she teaches art at Columbia College.

Joe Norman at Benedict College

2011-10-04T02:04:00.001-04:00

My wonderful friend Tyrone Geter is curator of the art gallery on Benedict College in Columbia, SC. I really hope the students understand the depth and uniqueness of the exhibits he seeks out and brings there. His upcoming show with the printmaker Joe Norman is such an exhibit. Here is an overview:

Joseph Norman and the Middle Passage Doc Promo from Leasa Fortune on Vimeo.

Invite to the inaugural SC Biennial 2011

2011-10-02T13:27:00.001-04:00

"With wit and passion Quashie uses the language of media marketing to dissect

stereotypical views of cultural relationships and expose them as separatist constructs.

He uses the seduction promised by contemporary advertising to lure the viewer into

a conversation that can be haunting in the depth of the issues raised."

- Mary Bentz Gilkerson
The Post Modern Sense of Regionalism
A Shift of Consciousness

First A La Carte event at the studio

2011-09-28T23:01:00.000-04:00

This has been a dream of mine for quite some time; to have a lecture series of African-American artists in my studio presenting their art to the public. With the help of Sandra Campbell, Brenda Lauderback-Wright and Garcia Williams, we are about to pull off the first one.

I met Michaela via facebook and later met her in person at the opening of the Triennial Revisited exhibition. I absolutely love this woman and her art. Very provocative and informative. She is the perfect artist to set the tone and pace for the artists I want to bring to Charleston. I hope the audience is ready for her!

Charleston City Paper Article

2011-09-28T11:25:00.000-04:00

Many local black artists struggle to fit in at MOJA
This Ain't My Festival
by Joy Vandervort-Cobb
My original intent was to write an article about the MOJA Festival and its impact on the African-American arts scene in Charleston. Makes sense. MOJA is atop us, I am an artist, and I like talking to other folks in the arts. Easy, right? Wrong. I've had more off-the-record conversations in the last week than I ever anticipated. There is disenchantment with the lack of local performing artists being featured. There is a sense, as one anonymous source put it, that "This ain't my festival." And according to a number of people — from musicians to thespians to technicians — the local buy-in from our community of African-American artists is about as flat as the economy.

But let me start with the easy, non-confrontational stuff. This is the 28th year that the festival is celebrating African-American and Caribbean arts. Those of you who have been in Charleston for any amount of time at least know that during MOJA, the culture and history of African-American and Caribbean people is celebrated through art, music, theater, dance, and literature. There are loads of free things to do, including the popular Caribbean Street Parade and the Reggae Block Party.

Brooklyn transplant and Mt. Pleasant resident Marlene Gaillard, an avid arts fan and longtime MOJA supporter, is torn about the festival this year. News of the 2011 schedule wasn't announced until just a few weeks ago, and Gaillard is disappointed with the seeming lack of organization. "First and foremost, could you explain to me why I just received my program booklet yesterday?" she says. "September 20 for a large event that begins nine days later? How does one plan for that? And there are enough 'TBAs' in this booklet that I had to ask myself if it was the name of a group I'd never heard of but was increasingly popular from the amount of times it's listed." The major R&B concert that's usually a highlight of MOJA was one of the TBA casualties.

The Office of Cultural Affair's Ellen Dressler Moryl explained that a number of factors, including a diminished staff, promoters backing out, and other events like the 9/11 commemorations, got in the way of planning. Perhaps most significantly, the MOJA program coordinator position was vacant this year, and a programming committee was tasked with the planning. Elease Amos-Goodwin, who formerly held the position and recently retired, served on the committee. "This year it has just been an occupational hazard that things didn't happen as one might want," Moryl said.

Gaillard also bemoans the lack of local talent represented at MOJA. "Why aren't there things in local venues with local musicians? Happens all the time during the big festival," she says. Moryl responded that she'll address that concern next year. "That's an interesting perspective," Moryl said. "I'll address it with the committee. As you know, we don't dictate from this office what should or shouldn't be in MOJA. We offer advice, give input, and support."

Colin Quashie is one local artist that has had some negative experiences with the festival. He's been a screenwriter, sketch comedy writer for television (MAD TV), a filmmaker, novelist, and contemporary artist. He's a bit of a provocateur, both in his work and his thought process. From the moment I met him in 1996 at my first MOJA, in which I performed with a San Francisco theater company, he has intrigued me. There he was at the end of the table, angry and loud and ready to spar with anybody crazy enough to challenge him. "It was after that MOJA experience that I decided to leave the art world in Charleston altogether, although I'd just purchased a home here and just gotten engaged," he says. "Yeah. 1996. I told myself, 'I'm not painting the stuff they want me to do, and I'll quit before I do it.' And I did. For 10 years."

Having been commissioned to design that year's poster, Quashie's work was a featured exhibit. That exhibit, essentially, lasted two days because the content, to the powers-that-be, was too incendiary. The exhibit was called The Black American Dream; there were 26 black ceramic tiles with gloss-black ink on a matte black surface. You could only see the black writing on the tiles from certain angles, as it was meant to be a subliminal reflection of the worst things that African Americans think about themselves. Atop that black writing, however, was white ink saying things like, "I want to be like the white man. I want to live like the white man. I want to be the only black person at a white party."

"I was trying to make a point, but I wasn't being critical," Quashie explains. "I recognized that I fell victim to some of the same stuff that I'd written. I wasn't above it. I suffered from it, too, and it needed to be talked about. I hung it on a clothesline and each tile was connected by a clothespin. Kind of like, you know, airing our dirty laundry as a community. It was an installment based on the politics of identity, racial and otherwise."

The exhibit was moved upstairs at the Dock Street, where they posted a security guard who was instructed to keep the door locked and not allow anyone under 17 inside. Quashie pulled the whole thing down and spent the next 10 years moving back and forth between Charleston and wherever he was working. Eventually, he came to a crossroads: continue working full-time on TV and film projects and let his art go, or return to Charleston and get his fingers dirty again. He chose the latter. With his studio on Upper King Street marked only by the letter Q, Quashie is quietly working to change the cultural fabric here in Charleston.

Fifteen years later, Quashie can laugh about the events of 1996. When he was invited to sit on the jury for the art submissions in 2007, he agreed, but it wasn't a great experience. He was disappointed by both the number of submissions and the quality of those submissions. "It was just too sad," he says. So, what does he want out of MOJA? His sense is that the festival jurists have a responsibility to educate the audience, to not limit what people see and define as "black art.

"Think about the posters created for Spoleto," he says. "These artists aren't limited in what they are able to produce. They're commissioned, and, well, like the work or not, it's art. It's meant to be discussed. That's the point of art. It creates dialogue, gets you engaged. If you look at the artwork on the posters for the last 10 years, MOJA isn't really doing that. There is a theme in these posters, and they begin to look alike. Believe it or not, I'm a huge supporter of MOJA, and I want it to be the best."

To be fair, there are a number of artist lectures on the slate again this year, and the Jonathan Green image gracing the poster is gorgeous. There are some artists being juried whose work runs the gamut, including that of Karole Turner Campbell, a mixed-media artist who has been involved in one way or another with MOJA since 2005, a year before she and her husband moved here. Her work is evocative, from title to texture, and according to Campbell, "Like it or not, as long as you're willing to dialogue about it, be engaged by it, whether you reject it or celebrate it, that conversation about the work is important and the point of the art."

Campbell is leading this year's writing workshop. Instead of poetry, the gathered students, pre-selected by Charleston County Schools, will write monologues. "They'll write their stories, explore their voices, and share them," Turner says. A former playwright, Campbell recognizes the importance and empowerment in finding a way to articulate and share your voice.

And speaking of literary endeavors, Nigerian-born writer, attorney, and educator (at the Charleston School of Law) Jacqueline Maduneme is about to experience her first MOJA Festival, and she couldn't be more excited. Her book, Ada's Daughter, is being promoted at the Avery Research Center in the Literary Corner with a signing and reading by the author. When asked what she was looking forward to about the festival, she spoke to the opportunity of meeting people in the community. "I've been here almost a year, and this will be one of my first opportunities to meet people of African-American descent. I'm hoping this event will connect me to the community here in Charleston. And I love the idea that MOJA is meant to be enjoyed and celebrated by everyone — all cultures — but its focus is the cultural and artistic depth within the African diaspora.

I also spoke to an emerging artist, actress Liza Dye, who was seen in PURE Theatre's production of David Mamet's Race last season. Dye, who heard about the MOJA Festival years before moving here from Spartanburg, was just as confused about how to become a part of it as a local actor. "I checked the website, asked people I thought would know, and finally just let it go. I wanted to audition for something, work on something," Dye says. "I mean, if this is the premier festival for African-American artists in this region, I wanted to be a part of it. But nothing. I couldn't find any information." Will that keep her away? "Probably. I mean, I'll catch something if I can, but I heard there is only one theater piece.

Indeed, the only theatrical offering this year, housed at the Circular Congregational Church on Meeting Street, is a Carlie Town Production, Diary Frum De Neck: Part 3: Dis Ya Da Gullah/Geechee Famblee Reunion. Other than that, there's no "traditional" theater. How does that happen at an arts festival? Well, it happens this way: Art Forms and Theatre Concepts, the local African-American production company generally seen during MOJA and Piccolo, says they did not have the financing to produce a show this season.

I spoke to a musician about the music scene during the festival and, upon agreeing to keep him anonymous, the disappointment and disconnect from MOJA was clear. "I've done MOJA. We all have," he says. "We've opened for the national artists they bring in or if you are an instrumentalist, you might fill out a chair, but I've never been approached to be the feature and wouldn't know the first thing about making that happen. It's interesting because a number of us work with the city on other ventures, but with MOJA ... Hell, they even bring sound techs in from out of town. Does that make sense? We've got local soundmen here that could use the work and deserve the work. It's not just the lack of local musicians, vocal or instrumental, it is the lack of local talent period. When was the last time you did MOJA?

Good question. It's been a lot of years for a number of reasons, but as soon as they open up applications for next year, I'm downloading one. No point in kvetching about what is and what ain't if I'm not willing to get my feet wet again.

Joy Vandervort-Cobb is an associate professor of African-American theatre and performance at the College of Charleston.

New Art - Plantation Digest

2011-09-05T21:47:00.000-04:00

I have been in the process of using a 3D architectural program to put together the Plantation exhibition at REDUX Studios. I wanted to include the J. CROW Advertisements but somehow they didn't seem to fit within the overall context. After staring at all of the pieces with a couple glasses of wine for clarity (in vivo, veritas!), I understood what was wrong and what needed to be done. Needless to say - 1 piece was destroyed (Black Tie Affair) and another modified (Blaccessories). The logic behind the destruction and rebirth was simple: if the stand alone panels were to be combined as one piece they needed to support an overall narrative which was missing. They needed two other pieces in support. If these were indeed intended to be ads in a fictional magazine that may have existed in that era - then what was the magazine? Enter ---> Plantation Digest!

Plantation Digest
36" x 48"
Gel and acrylic on board

As you can see - one of the teaser articles on the cover is 'J. CROW - Dressing for Succession' - which relates directly to the fake ads. The overall piece will have five panels with the cover going first, followed by 'Look Solid With Stripes'. It is meant to represent the first five pages of the Digest as though you were actually reading it. The next missing piece is being planned as I write and will be a letter from the editor. The corresponding text will help to shed some insight into the piece (not too much - let the viewer bring something to the piece!). I am finally happy with the display and can't wait to see it completed! Now I just have to figure out where it should be hung in the exhibition.

Plantation Coloring and Activity Book

2011-08-26T04:35:00.000-04:00

I went by REDUX Studio's today and met with Karen Myers (Director) and showed her my proposed layout for the upcoming exhibition. I used a wonderful program - Live Interior 3D Pro - to draw a schematic of the gallery and place many of the paintings on the wall. It allows you do a virtual walk thru of the exhibition and see everything. I highly recommend it to anyone. Here's what a screenshot looks like:

With this program I can place work on the walls in their actual sizes so I can see how the flow will work. Karen is basically allowing me to curate my own exhibit so I want to keep her up to date with everything. I should have everything completed by Thanksgiving - unless I decide to change - which will probably happen. I'm about 4 works short right now and made a couple changes to the Plantation Coloring Book. I wasn't happy with a couple of the panels so I painted over and redesigned them. Here are the two newest panels:

I dumped the Jim Crow and Draw the Aunt Jemima panel. They were a bit soft my taste - this is supposed to be a very cynical piece and I needed every panel to hold it's own.

Another Triennial Revisited article / review

2011-08-23T11:37:00.000-04:00

I had the pleasure of meeting the writer from USC's Daily Gamecock at the opening reception. Quite an impressive newspaper for a college paper. Certainly better arts coverage than we get here at the Post & Courier.

Gallery patrons view the work of local artists, displayed in 701 Center for Contemporary Art’s “Triennial Revisited” exhibit. The work will be on display until Sept. 25.

Art tackles social issues in ‘Triennial Revisited’

Local gallery gives community creative retrospective with new exhibit

Mikelle Street

MIX@DAILYGAMECOCK.COM

Tom Stanley’s uncertain, halting prose sets the tone for several pieces shown in the “Triennial Revisited” exhibit which opened Thursday at the 701 Center for Contemporary Art gallery of 701 Whaley St.

“Is this not deep enough for art. I mean that real high intellectual art. That art that is hard to understand. Is this too obvious. Is this not deep enough. WHAT IS DEEP ENOUGH. How deep is deep.”

These words comprised Stanley’s piece entitled “En Route to Hamlet,” one work among pieces from 18 different artists in the exhibit.

Dealing with healing, inadequacies and religion, Stanley’s piece is personal, as is evident in the handwritten, flowing script and small doodles scattered throughout. While most viewers didn’t take the time to actually read the long blocks of text, those who did found a stream of consciousness that seemed to constantly relapse on itself.

“Triennial Revisited” is a juried exhibition of pieces from the five South Carolina “Triennial” exhibitions organized by the South Carolina Arts Commission and South Carolina State Museum between 1992 and 2004. During those years, the “Triennial” was considered one of South Carolina’s most prestigious surveys of contemporary art. This exhibition was created to expose a new generation of artist patrons and admirers to the work of proven artists South Carolina artists.

“It’s a wonderful show, and part of the reason it is so wonderful is because it is a reprise of the ‘Triennials,’” said Brad Collins, chair of USC’s art department. “There’s a lot of quality artists showing who haven’t shown in a long time in Columbia.”

Collins was one of seven on the curatorial committee, composed of individuals who were involved with one or more of the five “Triennials.”

Stanley’s piece was not the only one from the 1998 “Triennial” that was revisited. John Acorn’s “As a Lure No. 1” was presented as well. A part of a series of pieces created from a 3-inch image of a camouflage suite in the newspaper that the artist blew up into a 7-foot, three-dimensional figure, the piece is made of wood, metal and cloth and features the figure with enlarged fishing lures hanging like scales off its body.

Envisioned by the artist to be presented at much higher than possible at the 701 CCA gallery (Acorn prefers the piece to hang above the heads of viewers as though the piece were a lure floating above a fish in the ocean), the piece certainly makes a powerful impact in the space.

One of the more political pieces was Colin Quashie’s, which was presented in the 1992 “Triennial.” A mixed media piece entitled “Blackbored” read, “ALL COURSES CANCELED DUE TO LOW ENROLLMENT — NONCREDIT COURSES AVAILABLE AT THE DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS,” written by Professor P. Rolle for his African American Studies class.

Quashie said that he frequently changes what’s written on the blackboard of his piece.

“My last one was about ‘racialgebra,’” Quashie said. “‘What’s the value of a

n------?’ was the question.”

The question caused some to answer via the notepad set on the lone desk that comprises one component of the pieces.

With more than 250 guests coming out for the opening reception, “Triennial Revisited” provides an educational look back to some of the forgotten artists of our state while prompting the art scene to get ready for 701’s South Carolina Biennial set to debut on Oct. 6.

The “Triennial Revisited” exhibit will run through Sept. 25.

Pieces currently featured in the exhibit were in previous “Triennial” exhibitions between 1992 and 2004. The work powerfully represents various social issues in Columbia.

Photos by Mikelle Street / THE DAILY GAMECOCK

Comments on this story? Visit dailygamecock.com/mix

Reproductions Now Available

2011-08-20T13:05:00.001-04:00

'Out of Bondage I - Richard Toler'

'Out of Bondage II - The Domestics'

'Aaron and Moses'

All Reproductions:

Edition Size - 250

Price: $400 / All 3: $1,000.00

Image sizes on all - appx. "23" x 30"

Select here to order

Plantation Series - Aaron and Moses

2011-08-20T12:42:00.002-04:00

"Aaron and Moses"

53" x 67"

Oil on Canvas

Some paintings drain you to your emotional core.

Reproductions Available:

Image Size 24" x 30"

Edition size - 250

Price: $400

Click here to purchase

FreeTimes Triennial Revisited Article

2011-08-17T11:29:00.001-04:00


Issue #24.33 :: 08/16/2011 - 08/22/2011
Triennial: Revisited Looks Back on 20 Years of S.C. Contemporary Art
BY JEFFREY DAY
Triennial, a recurring exhibition of contemporary South Carolina art, has returned — sort of. Triennial: Revisited, opening at the 701 Center for Contemporary Art on Thursday, takes a look back at the exhibition held every three years from 1992 to 2004. Triennial exhibitions were held at the S.C. State Museum and organized by the museum and the S.C. Arts Commission. The museum and commission cited cuts in staffing and budgets and changing priorities for doing away with the Triennial, but many artists and curators were dismayed at the move. Triennial: Revisited is a small, selective slice of those exhibitions, with only 18 artists. Revisited marks not only a look back at contemporary South Carolina art, but also sets the stage for a two-part biennial exhibition at 701 CCA opening this fall. The artists in Revisited were drawn from the 120 or so who were in previous Triennial exhibits. One juror from each of the five Triennial exhibitions plucked three artists from the original show they were involved in. Colin Quashie “We asked them to select artists who they felt best represented the spirit of the ‘Triennial’ during that time,” says Harriett Green, visual arts coordinator of the Arts Commission, who helped organize Revisited along with State Museum art curator Paul Matheny. Green and Matheny then picked three more artists, mostly trying to make sure no areas were overlooked. (Although the Arts Commission and the State Museum assisted with Revisited, they will not be involved with the upcoming biennial exhibitions.) The parameters for picking were wide: Artists who had died, were no longer active, had left the state or could not be located were not considered, but otherwise the selection process was wide open. Where possible, the art will be what was in the original show or from the same time period. “It’s amazing how many of those pieces are still available,” Green says. In many cases, artists made works specifically for the Triennial, often exploring new areas, increasing the scale and scope of their art. “This will be a really cool project,” Matheny says. “It goes all the way back —so it is almost 20 years since it started. The museum had not considered doing a show like this, but I’m glad the [art center] is organizing it.” Artists in Revisted are Clay Burnette, Stephen Chesley, Tyrone Geter, Peter Lenzo and Lee Sipe (Columbia); John Acorn, Pendleton; Herb Parker, Colin Quashie, Jocelyn Chateauvert and Bruno Civitico (Charleston); Aldwyth (Hilton Head Island); Michael Brodeur and Debbie Cooke (Greenville); Jim Connell, Beth Melton, Phil Moody and Tom Stanley (Rock Hill); and Jane Nodine (Spartanburg). The artists not only represent many areas of the state, they also produced many sorts of art. Chesley, Brodeur and Civitico do representational paintings. Chateauvert, Nodine and Melton often use fabric and fiber in installation-oriented pieces. Quashie mines pop culture, then mines it with social commentary. Burnette and Sipe do basketry, taking a traditional craft to new places. Debi Cooke’s work from the time she was in Triennial was done in a medium that has disappeared — Polaroid photos. The Triennial was often aimed at showcasing emerging artists, but it was open to anyone who wanted to enter (usually a couple hundred artists each time, with between 20 and 35 picked), and displayed a wide variety of works by artists at many career stages. The artists in Revisited are all far along in their careers and nearly all are over 50. Many of the younger artists in previous Triennial shows were graduate students or recent grads who have since moved away from the state, so they couldn’t be included as South Carolina artists. Phil Moody, In Memoriam, 1994 “This exhibition is a reminder of the way things were and how the art scene has changed, who is present and who is not,” Green says. “Some of these names will mean nothing to many people because there are a whole new set of players.” Some of the names that might mean something are also missing. Among those not selected are some of the state’s most well-known and accomplished artists: Russell Biles, Leo Twiggs, Tarleton Blackwell, Philip Mullen, Edward Rice, Virginia Scotchie and Mike Vatalaro. The job of the curators was to pick the best three representatives from each of the five previous Triennial shows, a limitation necessitated by the small size of 701 CCA. Like the original Triennial exhibitions, this Revisited version is likely to generate much discussion and disagreement about who got in and who didn’t. Criticism leveled at the Triennial exhibitions in the past was that some of the best artists weren’t included because they didn’t enter (many established artists don’t enter shows); that older, established artists should have quit entering to make way for younger emerging artists; that the selections were too skewed toward the academic; and that the trendy trumped the traditional. All of these observations were valid to various degrees, but the shows did give a decent view of what was going on in the state on many levels. They provided younger artists with a high-profile, prestigious forum and provided an all-too-rare outlet for the state’s most established artists who are too big for local galleries, but who don’t fit into most of the bigger museums. “One a scale of one to 10, I’d give it a nine or 10 in terms of importance,” Martha Severens, former chief curator of the Greenville County Museum of Art, said a few years ago of the Triennial exhibitions. “It’s a must-see exhibition.” When it was unceremoniously eliminated, there was an outcry among artists and curators. “It was looked forward to by all, and it produced a very strong representation of the great work done by South Carolina artists,” says artist Jim Connell. “I was proud to be in two of the shows. And, I was always impressed by the work my fellow artists had in these shows.” Connell and other artists who were included in Triennial exhibitions and who are in the Revisited show are looking forward to the new biennial shows. “The new biennial will be great,” Connell says, “but if I had my way, I wish we had the Triennial back. It was bigger and grander. It was staged in a great, big space — in a museum setting. It had status. It was respected. It was growing.” Colin Quashie says of the upcoming biennial: “I only hope that the jurying process is stiff and strenuous — the artists braving the process should be able to hurdle a bar set as high as possible, for everyone’s sake.” When the Center for Contemporary Art opened in 2008, its leaders indicated they wanted to create a show that filled the gap left by demise of the Triennial. What the biennial will be, however — let alone evolve into — is hard to determine just yet; as of press time, the exhibition was not listed on the Center for Contemporary Art website. What is known is that the biennial will be mounted in two stages, with the first opening Oct. 6 and the second Nov. 17. Center for Contemporary Art board president Wim Roefs, owner of if ART Gallery, said via email that several “curatorial sorts” from around the state would be asked to nominate artists and then a juror would select artists for the shows; no one involved has yet been announced. “We don’t know yet how many artists or the number of works, but it’s going to be a two-part exhibition with most likely several dozen pieces per exhibition,” Roefs said. Triennial: Revisited runs Aug. 18 through Sept. 25 at the 701 Center for Contemporary Art. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, Aug. 18, from 7 to 9 p.m. Reception admission is free for members, $5 for others. The 701 Center for Contemporary Art is at 701 Whaley St. Call 779-4571 or visit 701cca.org for more information.

Upcoming Exhibition

2011-08-11T04:14:00.000-04:00

TRIENNIAL REVISITED

August 18 - September 25, 2011

Opening Reception:

Thursday, August 18, 7-9 pm

With TRIENNIAL Revisited, 701 CCA presents a selection from the five S.C. Triennial exhibitions organized by the S.C. Arts Commission and S.C. State Museum between 1992 and 2004 and shown at the museum. TRIENNIAL Revisited is a juried exhibition that provides a prelude and historical context for the inaugural 701 CCA South Carolina Biennial. That exhibition will open in October and will be shown in two parts through December.

The artists for TRIENNIAL Revisited were selected by seven South Carolina curators who were involved with one or more of the five Triennials. Five of these curators were each assigned one Triennial year for which they served as a juror and asked to select three living artists from that year who still reside in South Carolina. Two other curators together made an additional three at-large selections. The 18 artists selected represent a broad range of styles and approaches for TRIENNIAL Revisited. The list of curators is included at the end of this release.

The South Carolina State Museum and the South Carolina Arts Commission launched the first TRIENNIAL exhibition in 1992. The goals of the TRIENNIAL exhibitions were to provide a venue to showcase recent work reflecting local, regional and national trends and issues influencing contemporary artists living and working in South Carolina and to increase awareness and appreciation of the artistic contributions and accomplishments of the state’s visual artists. The exhibition drew on the breadth of the visual arts community by providing a multi-media juried statewide exhibition opportunity in a major museum every three years. Artists were selected for the exhibition by curators with local, regional and national perspectives. The exhibition was considered South Carolina’s most prestigious survey of contemporary art during its run from 1992 -2004.

“We have played for a while with the idea of reinstating a regular overview of the best contemporary art in South Carolina,” says Wim Roefs, board chair and director of 701 CCA. “Inspired by the TRIENNIAL brand, 701 opted for a biennial model and we thought it would be important to provide some context. TRIENNIAL Revisited provides that context by examining the state’s art scene during the span of the five TRIENNIALS.” The art scene has changed considerably since the last TRIENNIAL and some works included in the exhibition reveal the magnitude of those changes. Roefs states that it was “important to include as many works as possible from the original TRIENNIAL exhibitions to underscore change and continuity in South Carolina’s contemporary art scene.” Roefs sees the exhibition as an introduction for younger artists and audiences and an appetizer for all with respect to the upcoming Biennial.

Sometimes I Hate What I Do

2011-08-06T15:12:00.000-04:00

The current painting I'm working on is the most emotionally painful piece I have ever worked on. I should have it finished by this time next week and will as always post it.

New Art at long last...

2011-08-03T16:25:00.000-04:00

I was careless and foolishly spilled my bottle of motivation about a month ago. The refill arrived last week and I'm back to full speed again, so much so that I worked overtime and finally completed a painting that should have been done two weeks ago - oh well, shit happens. Who knows, maybe that was art's way of telling me that I needed to step away from the canvas for a little while. Here is the latest painting:

"Out of Bondage II - The Domestics"

54" x 68"

Oil on Canvas

(select to enlarge)

Some may recognize these two ladies - they are actual slaves freed by the Emancipation Proclamation and were part of a larger group photographed outside a large building. It's so easy for us to look at some of those old images taken 150 years ago and gloss over the faces but they fascinate and pull me in. Considering what their lives were and more importantly, what they were to become in the perilous days ahead screamed out to me. The look of quiet resolve and defiance in the face of uncertainty made this painting a joy to render. I painted them in color against a black and white background to pull them out of the past and place them firmly amongst us - after all, everything they were is everything we are. I only wish I knew their names and could post their narratives alongside the painting to give their lives even greater meaning and context. I was lucky to have run across the slave narrative of Richard Toler - the gentleman in the first painting. If there are any historians who know who these women were, PLEASE contact me.

This may sound strange, but after painting this picture I sat with a bottle of wine in the studio and stared at their faces while listening to Nina Simone sing the blues in the background. We must have sat staring at each other for nearly two hours and it was almost as if I could hear them talking to me. It was such a melancholy moment that I didn't want to end. Maybe it was the wine, huh? I already have the next image ready to go and should have that one completed by the end of next week. I'm really looking forward to that one - it's gonna make me cry - I can feel it.

I will be creating prints of this series shortly so if anyone wants one - let me know.

Obama asks to borrow Rockwell painting

2011-07-08T13:01:00.000-04:00

The Problem We All Live With

Norman Rockwell

The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge has just announced that President Obama has asked it if the White House can borrow one of its most treasured paintings, Rockwell's "The Problem We All Live With," to mark the 50th Anniversary of Ruby Bridges's momentous walk to school, which marked the beginning of the racial integration of the William Frantz Public School in New Orleans on November 14, 1960. Rockwell's painting was made for the cover of the January 14, 1964, issue of "Look" magazine. It's one of his most powerful, courageous, and ardent pictures. The museum has agreed to the request. The painting will be on display at the White House until October 31.

Original post by Sebastian Smee

New Print

2011-07-06T12:09:00.000-04:00

At a client's request I have printed one of the coloring book pages 'Chocolate Americans'. The single artist proof has been sold but the remaining 5 are available at my print store. I will be adding more limited edition prints in the near future. As for the prints - I highly recommend that any buyer allow a child to color them in with crayons before framing! Consider it 'activating' the art.

Chocolate Americans

22" x 30"

silkscreen on paper

edition size: 5 + 1 artist proof

Art Storefront finally open

2011-07-05T19:49:00.000-04:00

I finally reworked and revamped my website storefront. I still have more things to add but this is a decent start. I get a lot of questions about prints and posters of my art. I'm in the process of making prints of a few works, but less expensive posters of some of my more asked about images are now available. If anyone wants an image that is not currently stocked on the shelf - let me know and I'll put it in the inventory.

You can access the storefront by clicking here.

Each month I will be slashing prices on a poster. In honor of Independence Day, 'American History X' will be on sale for $25 until the end of the month.

American History X

20" x 24"

Plantation Coloring & Activity Book

2011-06-30T20:22:00.000-04:00

The latest coloring book has been completed! Another piece marked off the list for the upcoming exhibition at REDUX titled 'Plantation (Plan-ta-shun)'. I will be silk-screening 25 portfolios of these as well as making a few actual coloring books.

Cover

acrylic on board

30" x 40"

Connect The Dots

acrylic on board

30" x 40"

Cotton Picking Fun

acrylic on board

30" x 40"

Drawing Fun

acrylic on board

30" x 40"

Find Two Alike

acrylic on board

30" x 40"

REBUS

acrylic on board

30" x 40"

Word Game

acrylic on board

30" x 40"

Jim Crow

acrylic on board

30" x 40"

I gave in and finally joined Facebook.

2011-06-29T23:03:00.000-04:00

Part of the great unwashed now.

Too funny not to post!

2011-06-14T21:36:00.000-04:00

For all the parents out there with toddlers:

Margaret Bowland

2011-06-10T15:38:00.000-04:00

An exhibition of Margaret Bowland's work is currently on display at the Greenville County Museum of Art. I plan to make a trip and see the work before it comes down. The visuals speak for themselves and don't need my ridiculous commentary. Here is her website if you want to learn more - Margaret Bowland.

And The Cotton is High

82" x 70"

Oil on Linen

Another Thorny Crown - Gray J

74" x 54"

Oil on Linen

The Artist

74" x 54"

Oil on Linen

Flower Girl

48" x 52"

Oil on Linen

Aaron Douglas

2011-06-10T15:16:00.002-04:00

Another artist that has informed my work is often referred to as the 'father of African American arts, Aaron Douglas. Though he fought against the label and refused to wear the crown, he nonetheless still bears the halo of respect which radiates for all to see.

Aaron Douglas (1899-1979)

I first encountered his art at a yard sale. A woodcut, Flight, from his 'Emperor Jones' series was used as a cover illustration for William Melvin Kelley's A Different Drummer (an awesome read - pick it up if you can). I purchased the book for a dollar solely for the cover illustration and after re-drawing, used it as the base image for my silk-screened piece, Plantation Yo-Yo (Run, Nigger, Run).

'Flight' 'Plantation Yo-Yo'

You can see the same image throughout my Plantation series. Intrigued by the stylistic shape, I checked out a book on the Harlem Renaissance and was blown away by Aaron's art. Though he painted in a variety of styles, it is the colorful multi-layered murals depicting various aspects of African American life intermingled with African and Egyptian motifs that have come to define his career. The large hulking figures and complex narratives presented in what appears to be a simplistic style draws you in and mesmerizes your senses. You literally cannot take your eyes off the pieces until you have explored them to their fullest. Here are some examples:

'Aspiration'

'Song of the Towers'

'Building More Stately Mansions'

Like many, I assumed that the work was simplistic based on the compositional elements. WRONG! I tried to paint one of his images on the wall of my den and after a week gave up in frustration. The layering combined with the top glazing (I assume that is what it is) he used baffled the hell out of me. Still can't figure out how the man did what he did! Nonetheless, I can;'t get enough of this man's work and can only hope that one day my art has the same visual and generational impact that his work has. I urge any and everyone to delve further into his art. Here is his bio from Wikipedia:

Aaron Douglas was born in Topeka, Kansas, to Aaron and Elizabeth Douglas. He developed an interest in art during his childhood and was encouraged in his pursuits by his mother. A native of Topeka, Kansas, Douglas graduated from Topeka High School in 1917. He received his B.A. degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1922. In 1925, Douglas moved to New York City, settling in Harlem. Just a few months after his arrival he began to produce illustrations for both The Crisis and Opportunity, the two most important magazines associated with the Harlem Renaissance. He also began studying with Winold Reiss, a German artist who had been hired by Alain Locke to illustrate The New Negro. Reiss's teaching helped Douglas develop the modernist style he would employ for the next decade. Douglas’s engagement with African and Egyptian design brought him to the attention of W. E. B. Du Bois and Alain Locke, who were pressing for young African American artists to express their African heritage and African American folk culture in their art.

Douglas was heavily influenced by the African culture he painted for. His natural talent plus his newly acquired inspiration allowed Douglas to be considered the "Father of African American arts." That title led him to say," Do not call me the Father of African American Arts, for I am just a son of Africa, and paint for what inspires me."

For the next several years, Douglas was an important part of the circle of artists and writers we now call the Harlem Renaissance. In addition to his magazine illustrations for the two most important African-American magazines of the period, he illustrated books, painted canvases and murals, and tried to start a new magazine showcasing the work of younger artists and writers. It was during the early 1930s that Douglas completed the most important works of his career, his murals at Fisk University and at the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library (now the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture).

Throughout his early career, Douglas looked for opportunities to increase his knowledge about art. In 1928-29, Douglas studied African and Modern European art at the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania on a grant from the foundation. In 1931 he traveled to Paris, where he spent a year studying more traditional French painting and drawing techniques at the Academie Scandinave.

In 1939, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he founded the Art Department at Fisk University and taught for 27 years. Coinciding with this move was a shift to a more traditional painting style, including portraits and landscapes like the one at right. Aaron Douglas has been called the father of African American art. His striking illustrations, murals, and paintings of the life and history of people of color depict an emerging black American individuality in a powerfully personal way. Working primarily from the 1920s through the 1940s, Douglas linked black Americans with their African past and proudly showed black contributions to society decades before the dawn of the civil rights movement. His work made a lasting impression on future generations of black artists.

In the film Hidden Heritage: The Roots of Black American Painting, David C. Driskell—an artist and a leading educator and scholar of African American art—discussed Aaron Douglas's role in art history: "Douglas is the leading painter of the [Harlem] Renaissance movement. A pioneering Africanist, he accepted the legacy of the ancestral arts of Africa and developed his own original style, geometric symbolism. At a time when it was unpopular to dignify the black image in white America, Douglas refused to compromise and see blacks as anything less than a proud and majestic people."

Best represented by black-and-white drawings with black silhouetted figures, as well as by portraits, landscapes, and murals, Douglas's art fused modernism with ancestral African images, including fetish motifs, masks, and artifacts. His work celebrates African American versatility and adaptability, depicting people in a variety of settings—from rural and urban scenes to churches to nightclubs. His illustrations in books by leading black writers established him as the black artist of the period. Later in his career, Douglas founded the Art Department at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Beginning in the 1920s, Douglas's illustrations appeared in books by James Weldon Johnson, Countee Cullen, Alain Locke, and other prominent black writers, activists, and intellectuals. They were also featured in such magazines as The Crisis, Opportunity, Harper's, and Vanity Fair. From the late twenties through the forties, his art was shown across the United States at universities, galleries, hotels, and museums, including the Harmon Foundation in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Dallas, Howard University's Gallery of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and New York's Gallery of Modern Art. In addition, selected works by Douglas were assembled for a landmark traveling show of Harlem Renaissance artworks sponsored by the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1988. According to Driskell in an essay for Harlem Renaissance Art of Black America, "It was Douglas's own strength of character and inventive artistry that enabled him to have a lasting impact on the future course of black expression in art." In A History of African American Artists from 1792 to the Present by Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson, Douglas was quoted as saying, "One day [my mother] came home with a magazine [containing] a reproduction of a painting by [black artist Henry O.] Tanner. It was his painting of Christ and Nicodemus meeting in the moonlight on a rooftop. I remember the painting very well. I spent hours poring over it, and that helped to lead me to deciding to become an artist." Years later, Douglas visited Tanner in Paris.

Douglas received a B.F.A. from the University of Nebraska in 1922 and a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Kansas the next year. Commenting on his days at the University of Nebraska, where he won a prize for drawing, he recalled: "I was the only black student there. Because I was sturdy and friendly, I became popular with both faculty and students." His ability to get along notwithstanding, Douglas longed to draw from an un-draped model and felt constrained by the "Victorian attitudes" that prevented the school from using nudes in the classroom.

The style Aaron Douglas developed in the 1920s synthesized aspects of modern European, ancient Egyptian, and West African art. His best-known paintings are semi-abstract, and feature flat forms, hard edges, and repetitive geometric shapes. Bands of color radiate from the important objects in each painting, and where these bands intersect with other bands or other objects, the color changes.

Set Curcio on display

2011-06-09T09:07:00.001-04:00

Our old friend and late director of REDUX moved to San Francisco a couple years ago and has been doing some wonderful work. A brief description and images from his latest exhibition "Pursuing A Calculated Distance" (along with Bradley Hyppa and Benjamin Meyer) was posted on the Huffington Post. Keep up the great work Seth!

Surface Descent

36" x 72"

What We Know

96" x 240"

Upcoming Exhibition

2011-06-06T13:01:00.001-04:00

I've been invited to have a solo exhibition at REDUX Contemporary Art Studio in Charleston, SC. I had a sit down with the director, Karen Ann Myers, and she penciled me in for mid next year (April - May?) I'll firm up the dates is a couple weeks. I've been thinking long about the direction of the exhibition and think that it is finally time to unleash the Plantation series. The space is not terribly large but they will be renovating the existing gallery and that should free up a few more precious feet of display area. I have a lot of work to do between now and the end of the year when I want to have everything completed for the exhibition. That means I will be running various display options through my thick skull until I get tired and settle on a firm direction. I surmise that I have at least one half of the exhibition completed already.

Along with the exhibit comes a residency and a catalog. I've never had a catalog made of an exhibit and I am looking forward to the process. One of the most exciting aspects of exhibiting at REDUX is their exterior wall.

REDUX Contemporary Art Center

Charleston, SC

As far as I know they possess the only public art space on the peninsula and allow artist in residence to paint whatever they want on it. I'm not sure if the wall mural automatically comes along with the exhibit but you can damn well be sure that I will ask for the honor! Another aspect of Redux that I love is that they are pretty liberal in their attitude towards exhibitions so my leash is extremely long. I'm looking forward to doing something extraordinary in the space.

By the way...

2011-06-03T14:42:00.000-04:00

The portrait that I was working on that was frustrating the hell out of me is finished and looks wonderful. I'll post a picture of it late next week. It's a surprise to a client's wife and I don't want to post it until he unveils it for her. I apologized to the art for my outburst and we are fast friends once again.

Is it just me...

2011-06-03T14:38:00.001-04:00

...or does our newly elected 1st District Republican Congressman Tim Scott look eerily familiar to Aunt Jemima? Just an observation, not implying anything about his character or political leanings.

Aunt Jemima Congressman Tim Scott

Contemporary Charleston 2011

2011-06-03T14:30:00.000-04:00

“Contemporary Charleston 2011: Under the Radar” 

Emerging Artist Competition & Piccolo Spoleto Exhibition

May 26 - July 31, 2011 City Gallery at Waterfront Park 34 Prioleau St., Charleston

View the winners’ work during the Piccolo Spoleto exhibition and meet the artists at the Opening Reception: Thursday, May 26, 2011, 6-8 p.m. All artwork is available for sale, with 20 percent of the proceeds benefiting the City Gallery at Waterfront Park. Operated by the City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs, the City Gallery at Waterfront Park is an admission-free venue for contemporary art that focuses on broadening Charleston’s arts outlook through new, vital, and innovative artwork.

For more information, call (843) 958-6484 or visitwww.charlestonmag.com/undertheradar orwww.citygalleryatwaterfrontpark.com.

Soup 2 Nuts

2011-04-25T21:57:00.001-04:00

I have been selected as the next artist to present for the Halsey Institute for Contemporary Arts' event titled Soup to Nuts. It is new patron membership event (postmodernist & above) and promises to be a lively event. The event will be hosted in my studio and I must say I am looking forward to sharing my highs and (mostly) lows in my pursuit of art. It should be a lively event!

A brief description of the event:

Soup to Nuts is an American English idiom conveying the meaning of "from beginning to end." The phrase comes from the description of a full course dinner in which courses progress from a soup to a dessert of nuts.

It is the "from beginning to end" part that makes Soup to Nuts dinner unique. These dinners are intimate casual affairs with artists serving as the main to course. Of course we don't eat the artist! Rather, we eat soup & devour the featured artist's creative process, as they describe inspiration, passions, grunt work, and ultimately, final result. Lively conversation ensues.

I have been a member of HICA for the past three years and urge anyone that is interested in supporting an arts organization dedicated to presenting some of the finest contemporary art in the country, to join. You can now donate online. For more info: Click Here.

One of the most amazing videos I've ever seen!

2011-04-14T12:42:00.002-04:00

I don't normally post spurious internet videos that I find intriguing but in this case this video was too good to be true. Hear Bach's 'Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring' played on a wooden staircase with no additional music - just the sound of nature, a ball, a long wooden xylophone and gravity. It is a blend of creativity and innovative thinking at it's finest. Well done!

This makes up for the shitty day I had yesterday and puts me in the mood to be creative again.

I need a drink

2011-04-13T19:26:00.000-04:00

What a fucking shitty day of painting. I've been working on a portrait for a week and got so frustrated with it I pulled it off the wall and ripped it to shreds. Fuck off, art.

New Art - Out of Bondage

2011-04-11T19:45:00.003-04:00

Alright, time to go on another creative streak again. This spring is starting to heat up for me with a few projects on the horizon as well as a list of paintings in my head that need to get out. The first one up is yet another sub-set of the Plantation Series titled the 'out of bondage' series. I was looking at some images online at the Library of Congress from the civil war and reconstruction era and was amazed at some of the pictures of slaves and freedmen. I downloaded a few out and composed them in a series of compositions that is meant to show the strength and enduring legacy of a people that were historically marginalized for centuries but somehow endured their hardship and thrived through adversity. There will be no usual Quashie styled political antics associated with these paintings - the images speak for themselves. The first painting is that of Richard Toler, a Virginia slave freed by the emancipation proclamation. In the original image he was standing on a street corner but I moved him to a rural setting.

Out of Bondage 1 (Richard Toler)

52" x 69"

oil on canvas

(select to view larger)

Richard Toler was born near Lynchburg in Campbell County, Virginia. He was the son of George Washington Toler and Lucy Toler, and the slave of Henry Toler. As a youngster, Richard Toler tended to the cows and calves on his master’s 500-acre farm; later, he hoed in the fields. He learned blacksmithing as a slave, and after emancipation he earned his living as a smith for 36 years. After the Civil War he bought a fiddle, and became an accomplished musician, playing for white dances and at hoe downs. He recalls medical treatment under slavery, as well as details of diet and clothing. He also recalls the brutal whipping of young girls by his master’s sons.

“Ah never fit in de wah; no suh, ah couldn’t. Mah belly’s been broke! But ah sho’ did want to, and ah went up to be examined, but they didn’t receive me on account of mah broken stomach. But ah sho’ tried, ’cause ah wanted to be free. Ah didn’t like to be no slave. Dat wasn’t good times.”

“Ah never had no good times till ah was free”, the old man continued. “Ah was bo’n on Mastah Tolah’s (Henry Toler) plantation down in ole V’ginia, near Lynchburg in Campbell County. Mah pappy was a slave befo’ me, and mah mammy, too. His name was George Washington Tolah, and her’n was Lucy Tolah. We took ouah name from ouah ownah, and we lived in a cabin way back of the big house, me and mah pappy and mammy and two brothahs.

”They nevah mistreated me, neithah. They’s a whipping the slaves all the time, but ah run away all the time. And I jus’ tell them – if they whipped me, ah’d kill ‘em, and ah nevah did get a whippin’. If ah thought one was comin’ to me, Ah’d hide in the woods; then they’d send aftah me and they say, ‘Come, on back, – we won’t whip you’. But they killed some of the niggahs, whipped ‘em to death. Ah guess they killed three or fo’ on Tolah’s place while ah was there.

“Ah never went to school. Learned to read and write my name after ah was free in night school, but they nevah allowed us to have a book in ouah hand, and we couldn’t have no money neither. If we had money we had to tu’n it ovah to ouah ownah. Chu’ch was not allowed in ouah pa’t neithah. Ah go to the Meth’dist Chu’ch now, everybody ought to go. I think religion must be fine, 'cause God Almighty's at the head of it."

Toler took a small piece of ice from the lard can, popped it between his toothless gum, smacking enjoyment, swished at the swarming flies with a soiled rag handkerchief, and continued.

“Ah nevah could unnerstand about ghos’es. Nevah did see one. Lots of folks tell about seein’ ghos’es, but ah nevah feared ‘em. Ah was nevah raised up undah such supastitious believin’s.

“We was nevah allowed no pa’ties, and when they had goin’ ons at the big house, we had to clear out. Ah had to wo’k hard all the time every day in the week. Had to min’ the cows and calves, and when ah got older ah had to hoe in the field. Mastah Tolah had about 500 acres, so they tell me, and he had a lot of cows and ho’ses and oxens, and he was a big fa’mer. Ah’ve done about evahthing in mah life, blacksmith and stone mason, ca’penter, evahthing but brick-layin’. Ah was a blacksmith heah fo’ 36 yea’s. Learned it down at Tolah’s.

“Ah stayed on the plantation during the wah, and jes’ did what they tol’ me. Ah was 21 then. And ah walked 50 mile to vote for Gen’l Grant at Vaughn’s precinct. Ah voted fo’ him in two sessions, he run twice. And ah was 21 the fust time, cause they come and got me, and say, ‘Come on now. You can vote now, you is 21.’ And theah now – mah age is right theah. ‘Bout as close as you can git it. “Ah was close to the battle front, and I seen all dem famous men. Seen Gen’l Lee, and Grant, and Abe Lincoln. Seen John Brown, and seen the seven men that was hung with him, but we wasn’t allowed to talk to any of ‘em, jes’ looked on in the street. Jes’ spoke, and say ‘How d’ do.

“But ah did talk to Lincoln, and ah tol’ him ah wanted to be free, and he was a fine man, ’cause he made us all free. And ah got a ole history, it’s the Sanford American History, and was published in 1784. But ah don’t know where it is now, ah misplaced it. It is printed in the book, something ah said, now written by hand. And it says, ‘Ah am a ole slave which has suvved fo’ 21 yeahs, and ah would be quite pleased if you could help us to be free. We thank you very much. Ah trust that some day ah can do you the same privilege that you are doing for me. Ah have been a slave for many years.

“Aftah the wah, ah came to Cincinnati, and was married three times. Mah fust wife was Mannie. Then there was Mollie. They both died, and then ah was married Cora heah, and ah had six child’en, one girl and fo’ boys. They’s two living yet; James is 70 and he is not married. And Bob’s about thutty or fo’ty. Ah done lost all mah rememb’ance, too ole now. But Mollie died when he was bo’n, and he is crazy. He is out of Longview (Home for Mentally infirm) now fo’ a while, and he jes’ wanders around, and wo’ks a little. He ha’mless, he wouldn’t hurt nobody. He ain’t married neithah.<

“After the wah, ah bought a fiddle, and ah was a good fiddlah. Used to be a fiddlah fo’ the white girls to dance. Jes’ picked it up. It was a natural gif’. Ah could still play if ah had a fiddle. Ah used to play at our hoe downs, too. Played all those ole time songs – Soldier’s Joy, Jimmy Long Josey, Arkansas Traveler, and Black Eye Susie. Ah remembah the wo’ds to that one.”

Smiling inwardly with pleasure as he again lived the past, the old Negro swayed and recited:

Black Eye Susie, you look so fine,

Black Eye Susie, ah think youah mine.
A wondahful time we’re having now,
Oh, Black Eye Susie, ah believe that youah mine.

And away down we stomp aroun’ the bush,
We’d think that we’d get back to wheah we could push
Black Eye Susie, ah think youah fine,
Black Eye Susie, Ah know youah mine.

Then, he resumed his conversational tone:

“Befo’ the wah we never had no good times. They took good care of us, though. As pa’taculah with slave as with the stock – that was their money, you know. And if we claimed bein’ sick, they’d give us a dose of castah oil and tu’pentine. That was the principal medicine cullud folks had to take, and sometimes salts. But nevah no whiskey – that was not allowed. And if we was real sick, they had the Doctah fo’ us.

“We had very bad eatin’. Bread, meat, water. And they fed it to us in a trough, jes’ like the hogs. And ah went in may [sic] shirt till I was 16, nevah had no clothes. And the flo’ in ouah cabin was dirt, and at night we’d jes’ take a blanket and lay down on the flo’. The dog was supe’ior to us; they would take him in the house.

“Some of the people I belonged to was in the Klu Klux Klan. Tolah had fo’ girls and fo’ boys. Some of those boys belonged. And I used to see them turn out. They went ’round whippin’ niggahs. They get young girls and strip ‘em sta’k naked, and put ‘em across barrels, and whip ‘em till the blood run out of ‘em, and then they would put salt in the raw pahts. And ah seen it, and it was as bloody aroun’ em as if they’d stuck hogs.

“I sho’ is glad I ain’t no slave no moah. Ah thank God that ah lived to pas the yeahs until the day of 1937. Ah’m happy and satisfied now, and ah hopes ah see a million yeahs to come.”

Source: The American Slave, Vol. 16: 97-101.

More Approved Plantation Colors

2011-03-02T02:01:00.000-05:00

This is the companion piece to the other Plantation Palette. It speaks for itself.

Plantation Palette - Savoury

44" x 63"

Acrylic and gel on Canvas

The Plantation Approved Colors

2011-02-25T23:42:00.000-05:00

As promised, here is the first piece of the new year. The Plantation series continues with the approved color palette(s). I have about 4 of these planned (so far) with two completed. I'll upload the other one later on in the week. This one obviously deals with the relations (many forced) slaveowners had with their slaves. As slaves were the property of the plantation owner, the rape of a black woman by whites was not considered a crime. First-generation children of mixed race were called mulattoes.

Plantation Palette (Sensual)

63" x 44"

Acrylic and gel transfer

The following passages were taken from the critical essay "The Tragic Mulatto Myth" by Dr. David Pilgrim. To read the full essay, click here.

E.B. Reuter, an historian, wrote:

In slavery days, they (Mulattoes) were most frequently the trained servants and had the advantages of daily contact with cultured men and women. Many of them were free and so enjoyed whatever advantages went with that superior status. They were considered by the white people to be superior in intelligence to the black Negroes, and came to take great pride in the fact of their white blood....When possible, they formed a sort of mixed-blood caste and held themselves aloof from the black Negroes and the slaves of lower status.

Reuter's claim that mulattoes were held in higher regard and treated better than "pure Blacks" must be examined closely. American slavery lasted for more than two centuries; therefore, it is difficult to generalize about the institution. The interactions between slaveholder and slaves varied across decades--and from plantation to plantation. Nevertheless, there are clues regarding the status of mulattoes. In a variety of public statements and laws, the offspring of White-Black sexual relations were referred to as "mongrels" or "spurious." Also, these interracial children were always legally defined as pure Blacks, which was different from how they were handled in other New World countries. A slaveholder claimed that there was "not an old plantation in which the grandchildren of the owner [therefore mulattos] are not whipped in the field by his overseer." Further, it seems that mulatto women were sometimes targeted for sexual abuse.

According to the historian J. C. Furnas, in some slave markets, mulattoes and quadroons brought higher prices, because of their use as sexual objects. Some slavers found dark skin vulgar and repulsive. The mulatto approximated the White ideal of female attractiveness. All slave women were vulnerable to being raped, but the mulatto afforded the slave owner the opportunity to rape, with impunity, a woman who was physically White (or near-White) but legally Black.

The mulatto woman was depicted as a seductress whose beauty drove White men to rape her. This is an obvious and flawed attempt to reconcile the prohibitions against miscegenation (interracial sexual relations) with the reality that Whites routinely used Blacks as sexual objects. One slaver noted, "There is not a likely looking girl in this State that is not the concubine of a White man...." Every mulatto was proof that the color line had been crossed. In this regard, mulattoes were symbols of rape and concubinage. Gary B. Nash summarized the slavery-era relationship between the rape of Black women, the handling of mulattoes, and White dominance:

Though skin color came to assume importance through generations of association with slavery, white colonists developed few qualms about intimate contact with black women. But raising the social status of those who labored at the bottom of society and who were defined as abysmally inferior was a matter of serious concern. It was resolved by insuring that the mulatto would not occupy a position midway between white and black. Any black blood classified a person as black; and to be black was to be a slave.... By prohibiting racial intermarriage, winking at interracial sex, and defining all mixed offspring as black, white society found the ideal answer to its labor needs, its extracurricular and inadmissible sexual desires, its compulsion to maintain its culture purebred, and the problem of maintaining, at least in theory, absolute social control.

George M. Fredrickson, author of The Black Image in the White Mind, claimed that many White Americans believed that mulattoes were a degenerate race because they had "White blood" which made them ambitious and power hungry combined with "Black blood" which made them animalistic and savage. The attributing of personality and morality traits to "blood" seems foolish today, but it was taken seriously in the past. Charles Carroll, author of The Negro a Beast (1900), described Blacks as apelike. Regarding mulattoes, the offspring of "unnatural relationships," they did not have "the right to live," because, Carroll said, they were the majority of rapists and killers. His claim was untrue but widely believed. In 1899 a southern White woman, L. H. Harris, wrote to the editor of the Independent that the "negro brute" who rapes White women was "nearly always a mulatto," with "enough white blood in him to replace native humility and cowardice with Caucasian audacity." Mulatto women were depicted as emotionally troubled seducers and mulatto men as power hungry criminals. Nowhere are these depictions more evident than in D. W. Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation (1915).

Back in the Saddle Again!

2011-02-24T19:31:00.000-05:00

Been a long time, but I can assure you that the work and the posts are back. I rented the studio again and had to do some work in there to get it up to speed to start the creative process moving along. I had no need for a 50 foot wall so the space has been partitioned to create a pseudo gallery and a work / storage area. I'm still in the process of moving all of the work in there but am in no real hurry...it will accumulate over the next couple months - besides, I need something on my walls at home!

I've been feeling the itch and wanted to get back into it slowly. I actually finished two paintings this morning and will post them as soon as Rick Rhodes finishes photographing them. I will start on another early next week and will try to have that one done by the week's end. I'm still working on the Plantation series and the ideas are bursting forth so you know what that means - foolishness will ensure at a torrid pace. I have a feeling that this will be my most productive year ever and I have a list of stuff that I intend to to attack ferociously. So, if you are in the area, feel free to stop by - it will be my de facto home.

And the winner is....

2011-01-24T21:13:00.000-05:00

During my last exhibition titled 'Subjective Perception' at the Ponder Fine Arts Gallery on the campus of Benedict College in Columbia, SC, I posed a question on my interactive 'painting' the 'Blackbored'.

"Blackbored - Racialebra'

I posted a sign stating that any student who answered the question the most correctly would win a signed and framed poster of a piece of art. After reading half a dozen responses, the most correct was submitted by Kennan Hutson.

"The noun 'nigger' is one of the most unique nouns I've known because it is more

than a title. The noun 'nigger' is a state of being, a mindset and a way of living,

a culture. At one point in time 'nigger' was defined as an ignorant person but now

many things have been attached. 'Nigger' has developed its own color, even entity,

and can only be determined by one's own perspective. Based on our society, to say

the word 'nigger' is immoral, but to kill one is tolerated. There is only one answer;

A 'nigger' is as valuable as it's influence. It is as powerful as the mind of its adversary

and is as helpful to a society as the weakest star in the midnight sky."

Well stated, my man. See America, there is a depth of knowledge and solemn contemplation on the part of our youth. Challenge them and they will rise! The real answer resides in Kennan's statement that it is immoral to say the word 'nigger' but killing one is tolerated. In today's politically correct society, we have placed greater value on words that on actual lives. This conundrum reminds me of the children's rhyme, 'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Not these days. In our 24-hour sound byte obsessed media market, where outrage is manufactured and manipulated to drive ratings to an audience that no longer cares to think for itself and has ceded moral authority to talking heads and pundits that have carved up and aim their subjective opinion (not objective journalism) at demographics that only fit their political ideology, its no wonder that the value of a human life has been eroded to the point that it now matches our limited attention spans. Kennan's right, the value of words lies in their power to influence.

SERVICE is now on Quashie website

2010-12-26T19:17:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday. I'm using the downtime to catch up with some work. I always wanted to have a single page on my site that showed the entire "Service" painting along with the bio's and events depicted in the entire piece. I'm finally on my way to doing just that and just launched the page.

Now all you have to do is scroll the cursor over the faces and the shortened bios will pop up underneath. I'll be adding more info on each in the future as well as links to other sites that have far more info than I do on the individuals and events depicted. Select this link to view the page.

Since so many asked....

2010-12-23T11:33:00.000-05:00

I have gotten many requests for posters of 'NUTS'. So here they are in two sizes - 16" x 20" and 20" x 30". Anyone who wants to order select the link below.

POSTER STORE

16" x 20"

20" x 30"

New Art - J. CROW Apparel Advertisements

2010-12-22T16:39:00.000-05:00

Sorry about the disappearing act. As many of you know, I used to do some writing in Hollywood and they came calling again. There was some interest in a screenplay that I had written as well as pilot to a sit-com. I needed to take the time to do a polish on both and send them out to La-La land. Hopefully they will interest a few notable people and who knows, they may actually make it to the big and small screen, respectively - but I seriously doubt it. The odds are tremendously long for any such thing happening but you have to roll the dice and get it out there. After all, they won't get there if you write them. We'll see what happens.

In the meantime, back to the art. I finished a couple more pieces of the Plantation series - the somewhat misguided ad campaign for the equally misguided Jim Crow Apparel clothing line. I'm having so much fun with these.

This will be the last post until next year. I have some really nice work planned. I'm off to Florida to hang out with mom for Christmas. have a great holiday and please be safe if traveling!

J. CROW APPAREL - Branding Irony

acrylic and gel on birch panel

36" x 48"

J. CROW APPAREL - Stripes

acrylic and gel on birch panel

36" x 48"

Shameless Christmas Plug!

2010-12-02T09:23:00.001-05:00

Want a great Christmas gift? How about a decent book? I wrote this last year and am working on a sequel (while the paint dries).

CLICK HERE TO ORDER

Blaccessories?

2010-11-30T16:00:00.000-05:00

The latest installment of the Plantation series bounces back with another ad campaign for the Jim Crow (J. Crow) apparel line. The line is was inspired by the many 'celebrity' clothing lines that are targeted toward fans and their slice of demographics. I wondered why racists didn't have a mainstream clothing line and that led to the J. Crow apparel concept.

One of the more controversial practices that is fairly or unfairly (depending on your perspective) covered by the press is that of white celebrity parents adopting black babies. There are those that interpret the motivation as a deep seated guilt complex rather than an act of love, compassion and validation of the so-called 'post-racial' society. Many see it as a manipulation of the press considering that black celebrities who adopt black children are rarely given equal exposure.

"Blaccessories"

48" x 72"

Mixed media

Regardless of your take, there is no doubt the discomfort is rooted in the memory of slavery. In slavery days, black babies were a thriving business. Strong slave women and men were labeled 'breeding stock' and forced to conceive to produce superior offspring that were used as laborers. Some women produced up to twenty for this purpose. Slave life was particularly hard and to replace their losses, women were expected to start having babies as early as thirteen and produce at least five by the age of twenty. Plantation owners promised women their freedom once they had produced fifteen children. Many slave owners purposely impregnated their female chattel (it wasn't considered rape because slaves weren't considered 'people' with rights, but property). One particular Virginia slave trader boasted that he had sold as many as 6,000 slave children in one year!

I found a wonderful article online that delved into the issue of black adoption by Hollywood celebrities. Article: Black Babies: Hollywood's Hottest Accessory?

New Art - Follow Me

2010-11-17T10:41:00.000-05:00

The Plantation series rolls on with a screenshot of Harriett Tubman's Twitter homepage. The dots for this idea connected when a friend asked, via email, why I didn't have a Facebook account. "That way people could follow your art." Hmmmm. Followers. Isn't that what Twitter is for? And had it been available, who in slavery times would have needed a Twitter account? No one would would have had more followers than Harriett Tubman. From her own words, "I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves."

And yes, I actually opened a Twitter account for Harriett Tubman and HurryIt_UpMan is her profile name. She has yet to tweet anyone but already has one follower.

"Follow Me"

56" x 42"

acrylic on birch panel

Biography of Harriet Tubman

Harriet Ross Tubman (1822-1913). Born into slavery on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Tubman gained international acclaim as an Underground Railroad operator, abolitionist, Civil War spy and nurse, suffragist, and humanitarian. After escaping from enslavement in 1849, Tubman dedicated herself to fighting for freedom, equality, and justice for the remainder of her long life, earning her the biblical name "Moses" and a place among the nation's most famous historical figures.

Originally named Araminta, or "Minty," Harriet Tubman was born in early 1822 on the plantation of Anthony Thompson, south of Madison in Dorchester County, Maryland. Tubman was the fifth of nine children of Harriet "Rit" Green and Benjamin Ross, both slaves. Edward Brodess, the stepson of Anthony Thompson, claimed ownership of Rit and her children through his mother Mary Pattison Brodess Thompson. Ben Ross, the slave of Anthony Thompson, was a timber inspector who supervised and managed a vast timbering operation on Thompson's land. The Ross's relatively stable family life on Thompson's plantation came to abrupt end sometime in late 1823 or early 1824 when Edward Brodess took Rit and her then five children, including Tubman, to his own farm in Bucktown, a small agricultural village ten miles to the east. Brodess often hired Tubman out to temporary masters, some who were cruel and negligent, while selling other members of her family illegally to out of state buyers, permanently fracturing her family.

Working as a field hand while a young teen, Tubman was nearly killed by a blow to her head from an iron weight, thrown by an angry overseer at another fleeing slave. The severe injury left her suffering from headaches, seizures and sleeping spells that plagued her for the rest of her life. During the late 1830s and early 1840s, Tubman worked for John T. Stewart, a Madison merchant and shipbuilder, bringing her back to the familial and social community near where her father lived and where she had been born. About 1844 she married a local free black named John Tubman, shedding her childhood name Minty in favor of Harriet.

On March 7, 1849, Edward Brodess died on his farm at Bucktown at the age of 47, leaving Tubman and her family at risk of being sold to settle Brodess's debts. In the late fall of 1849 Tubman took her own liberty. She tapped into an Underground Railroad that was already functioning well on the Eastern Shore: traveling by night, using the North Star and instructions from white and black helpers, she found her way to Philadelphia. She sought work as a domestic, saving her money to help the rest of her family escape. From 1850 to 1860, Tubman conducted between eleven and thirteen escape missions, bringing away approximately seventy individuals, including her brothers, parents, and other family and friends, while also giving instructions to approximately fifty more who found their way to freedom independently.

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 left most refugee slaves vulnerable to recapture, and many fled to the safety and protection of Canada. Indeed, Tubman brought many of her charges to St. Catharines, Ontario, where they settled into a growing community of freedom seekers. Her dangerous missions won the admiration of black and white abolitionists throughout the North who provided her with funds to continue her activities. In 1858, Tubman met with the legendary freedom fighter, John Brown, in her North Street home in St. Catharines. Impressed by his passion for ending slavery, she committed herself to helping him recruit former slaves to join him on his planned raid at Harper's Ferry, Va. Though she hoped to be at his side when the raid took place in October 1859, illness may have prevented her from joining him. In 1859, William Henry Seward, Lincoln's future Secretary of State, sold Tubman a home on the outskirts of Auburn, New York, where she eventually settled her aged parents and other family members. On her way to Boston in April 1860, Tubman became the heroine of the day when she helped rescue a fugitive slave, Charles Nalle, from the custody of United States Marshals charged with returning him to his Virginia master.

In early 1862, Tubman joined Northern abolitionists in support of Union activities at Port Royal, South Carolina. Throughout the Civil War she provided badly needed nursing care to black soldiers and hundreds of newly liberated slaves who crowded Union camps. Tubman's military service expanded to include spying and scouting behind Confederate lines. In early June 1863, she became the first woman to command an armed military raid when she guided Col. James Montgomery and his 2nd South Carolina black regiment up the Combahee River, routing out Confederate outposts, destroying stockpiles of cotton, food and weapons, and liberating over 700 slaves.

After the war, Tubman returned to Auburn, New York. There she began another career as a community activist, humanitarian, and suffragist. In 1869, Sarah Bradford published a short biography of Tubman called "Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman," bringing brief fame and financial relief to Tubman and her family. She married Nelson Davis, a veteran, that same year; her husband John Tubman had been killed in 1867 in Dorchester County, Maryland. She struggled financially the rest of her life, however. Denied her own military pension, she eventually received a widow's pension as the wife of Nelson Davis, and, later, a Civil War nurse's pension.

Her humanitarian work triumphed with the opening of the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged, located on land abutting her own property in Auburn, which she successfully purchased by mortgage and then transferred to the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in 1903. Active in the suffrage movement since 1860, Tubman continued to appear at local and national suffrage conventions until the early 1900s. She died at the age of 91 on March 10, 1913 in Auburn, New York.

New Art - FledX

2010-11-15T00:36:00.005-05:00

One more step towards the goal of completing 20 new pieces of art in the 'Plantation' series. FledX is a pure commercial parody that started out as UPS parody. The escaped slave in the box is named Henry Brown and since the UPS slogan is 'what can brown do for you' the obvious choice was UPS. But, I couldn't resist the synchronicity of Fled X seeing that Henry was fleeing slavery and the 'X' in the confederate flag is so prominent. This was a no-brainer.

"FledX"

acrylic and gel transfer on canvas

48" x 53"

Henry Brown's story:Henry was born into slavery in 1815 in Louisa County, Virginia. In 1830 he was sent to Richmond, Virginia to work in a tobacco factory where he met and married another slave, Nancy, and the couple had three children. Brown used his wages to pay Nancy's master for the time she spent caring for them. However, in 1848, his wife and children were sold to a slave trader and sent to North Carolina.

With the help of James C. A. Smith, and a sympathetic white storekeeper named Samuel Smith, Brown devised a plan to have himself shipped to a free state by Adams Express. Brown paid $86 (out of his savings of $166) to Smith, who contacted Philadelphia abolitionist James Miller McKim, who agreed to receive the box. Brown burned his hand with Oil of vitriol as an excuse for missing work.

During the trip, which began on March 23, 1849, Brown's box traveled by wagon, railroad, steamboat, wagon again, railroad, ferry, railroad, and finally delivery wagon. Several times during the 206 mile, 27-hour journey, carriers placed the box upside-down or handled it roughly, but Brown was able to remain still enough to avoid detection. The box containing Brown was received by McKim, and other members of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee. When Brown was released, one of those present remembered his first words as "How do you do, gentlemen?" He then sang a Psalm he had previously selected for his moment of freedom.

Brown became a well-known speaker for the Anti-Slavery Society. He was bestowed the nickname of "Box" at a Boston antislavery convention in May 1849, and thereafter used the name Henry Box Brown. He published two versions of his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown; first in Boston in 1849 and the second in England in 1851. Brown exhibited a moving panorama titled "Mirror of Slavery" in the northeastern United States until he was forced to move to England after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Brown toured Britain with his antislavery panorama for the next 10 years, performing several hundred times a year and visiting virtually every town and city over that period. Brown stayed on the British show circuit for twenty-five years, until 1875. In the 1860s, he began performing as a mesmerist, and some time after that as a conjuror, under the show names Prof. H. Box Brown and the African Prince. Leaving his first wife and children in slavery (though he had the means to purchase their freedom); he married a second time, to a white British woman, and began a new family. In 1875, he returned to the U.S. with a family magic act. There is also a later report of the Brown Family Jubilee Singers. The cause and date of his death are unknown.

Orlando Jones and Mad Tv

2010-11-11T13:58:00.008-05:00

The work of any decent artist is the amalgamation of their life experiences. Those experiences are unique to each and when combined, influences greatly the path the artist will choose (or was chosen by providence for them) that they will follow. The older one gets, the clearer one sees when and where the dots connected. A major dot was connected with a phone call in 1988.

The greatest peripheral influence on my art (I use the word peripheral in this case because the help came from outside the normal artistic realm), was from Orlando Jones. I met Orlando shortly after leaving the Navy in 1987. I was hired to do a photo shoot with one of his roommates, called to make an appointment and Orlando answered. Though complete strangers, we talked for nearly an hour as though old friends and when I called again, the same thing happened. We formally met a few weeks later at a house party he was throwing and a month after that, we were roommates and have been best friends since. Brothers really.

Orlando was still in college but would soon depart for Hollywood to become a writer for 'A Different World', 'Sinbad', 'Roc' and 'Martin'. His on air break came with Fox's 'Sound FX' before joining the initial cast of MadTv. We always stayed in touch and during the first season of MadTv, I authored a few sketches for him that made it to air, with the first being 'Racism vs. Spam', based on one of my paintings. I had no desire to become a comedy writer. While painting I would simply have ideas run through my head that I would pass along to Orlando. He would ask me to write them up, then tweak and pitch them.

In 1996 after yet another censored exhibition, I grew tired of art (and the annoying people around it), and decided to quit before yielding. Orlando told the Exec. Producers and Head Writer about my writing contributions to the show to date, and after an exhaustive process, I was hired as an apprentice writer. I had no writing experience whatsoever outside of the few sketches written for him. I was dubious, but he flew me out to Los Angeles, provided lodging, money, a car and a laptop and told me point blank, 'There's a writer in you, you just don't know it. Write, and I will correct." Little did I know how that act of selfless generosity on his part, along with blind faith on mine, would forever change and shape the art that I had just vowed to quit.

Artists by nature are nomads. We usually operate on a singular creative level - from head to hand to canvas with nothing betwixt or between. It's up to us to shape the process and the resultant product as we see fit. On day one, I learned that television does not work on that creative schedule. It is by definition, a collaborative medium. Ideas that were once my own now belonged to the cruel and heartless room of writers (15-20) sitting around the conference table during a Monday morning pitch session, all there for one reason - to get their ideas and jokes on air and justify their jobs. It was brutal. You pitch an idea that you may have thought was complete and funny, only to have it make its way around the room. By the time it was filtered by the many voices and made its way back to you, it was unrecognizable, but somehow better, streamlined, funnier and edgier than your original pitch. It was also assigned to someone else who contributed more to it that you did, to write the first draft.

At first, the process demoralized and depressed me. I was working with smarter, funnier, well traveled and more informed people that seemed to have an indispensable fountain of comedic and pop references at their disposal. With an hour show to write and tape on a weekly basis, the speed of the game was extraordinary and I struggled mightily to keep pace. It was Orlando Jones that coached but never coddled me. After all, 'This is the business. This is what we do." Our relationship evolved and resembled that of Kevin Costner and Tim Robbins in 'Bull Durham', and I could hear him telling me on a daily basis, "Quit thinking Meat and just throw the ball. You have the talent or you wouldn't be here."

One immutable fact registered with authority. The audience, or in other words...ratings. It's about them - so write for them. Unlike art, this was no longer about satisfying my impulses, it was about reaching and sustaining audience. The average sketch is 6 pages long, three minutes of air time. That's all you had. Establish the joke, deliver the joke, get the hell out while they were still laughing. In other words, 'come to the party late and leave early.' I remember pitching a sketch idea to Orlando that I thought was hilarious only to have him stare at me like an idiot before asking, "Are you going to knock on every door and peddle that sketch to the audience with a manual? Simplify, son, simplify!"

Over the coming months, I never really got comfortable, but started learning how to shape and filter ideas. I began to hear the voices of the other writers (primarily Orlando's) in my head, challenging, questioning and streamlining my pitches. The result was the beginning of understanding how to structure and work out a specific process to find the 'joke'. How many times had Orlando asked me, "So, what's the joke?" The joke - the spine of the idea on which the comedy is hung. What's this sketch really all about? Boil it down to it's most basic, realistic, and essential elements then rebuild it comedically. Quit writing comedy and start writing reality - a strange idea for a comedy show. Not really. Anything can be made funny, but first it must make sense. The greatest and most successful comedies are at their heart based on realistic premises. Find the joke and the rudest and most savage of thoughts could not only be delivered effortlessly, but accepted by the audience using comedy as the delivery device.

Between 1996 and 2006, I had gone on to write for 6 comedy series, 4 of which involved Orlando directly. The teaching and learning has never stopped. By the time I made the decision to return to art, the filtering process had taken hold and to this day shapes the way I approach all of my ideas about art. ALL OF THEM. Before my stint as a writer began, there was an oppressive element of anger about my art that was correctly translated as offense to the audience. It was my trademark and eventually led to my demise in 1996. Not only is that element still there, it's admittedly worse. The difference is that because of what I learned as a writer, I now employ a creative process that takes the same difficult topic, reduces it to its core element to 'find the joke', rebuilds it with an emphasis on identifying and embracing an audience, then infuses it with humor to dull the senses until the laughter stops and reality sets in. In a phrase, 'It's all fun and games until I poke you in the eye.' A statement from the latest review of my exhibition 'Subjective Perception' by Mary Bentz Gilkerson sums it up:

   "This is precisely what makes his work so challenging not only to the average viewer,
   but to many art insiders as well. His imagery is very accessible, luring the viewer into
   a dialogue that then turns their preconceptions upside down. Images that are
   associated with comfort and ease are turned around to force a sense of unease."

Because of the process, it's become somewhat easier to produce the product. I admittedly still struggle with ideas - but that's the challenge offered by the need to push further with each new painting. Once that stops, you're done. I've been blessed to have people like Orlando Jones in my life and write this as a 'thank you' to a debt I can only repay by continuing to honor the knowledge given by applying it and urging others to take the time to find and recognize the roots of their creative process. It is an unconquerable force that once you humble yourself to its power, let go and trust it, it will take you on a frustrating and at times, rewarding journey.

Urban League Silent Auction

2010-11-10T15:18:00.001-05:00

For all those that always ask about purchasing a piece of my art - here is a great opportunity. My friend Sandra Campbell asked me to contribute a piece of art for the Urban League auction tomorrow night, so I created a smaller version of the slave 'Resume'. Though a quarter the size of the large piece, it is a great piece of art and best of all, NOT A PRINT but an distinctive piece unto itself. Contact Sandra at sandcampb@aol.com or call her cell 813-8168 to bid on the piece. I did not set a minimum price so good luck!

(select to enlarge)

Native Magazine Interview

2010-11-06T23:38:00.004-04:00

Kurt Walker of Native Magazine interviewed me while I was working on the UNC School of Government 'Service' mural. Thanks, Kurt. You did a great job of editing out the parts where I sound like the idiot I really am.

Benedict Exhibition Review

2010-11-04T22:56:00.002-04:00

This has been a trying but rewarding week. I absolutely love engaging college students. They can be trifling at times but if you can appeal to them on issues that are important to them, they open up and embrace you wholeheartedly.

I have been at Benedict for the past two days. Yesterday I had a talk with an Art Appreciation class that started off a little flat but ended on a high note. After that I spent a few hours with some students in other classes and the gallery before the big talk in the auditorium followed by the reception. I didn't get out of there until 9.

Today was more of the same. Met with three classes and the art department majors and had a workshop on creativity where we interacted and talked at length about creativity. Great talk. After that I visited a couple galleries and artists in the area as well as the Columbia Museum of Art.

Tomorrow, I have a session two-hour session with another class then I head home to sweet sleep and another painting that's been racking my head to get out. There is still a few rumblings on the campus about the exhibit but the tide has turned and the show is doing what Tyrone intended it to do - create dialogue.

Issue #23.44 :: 11/03/2010 - 11/09/2010

Quashie Offers Witty But Unflinching Racial Commentary

A review of Colin Quashie: Subjective Perceptions, on view at Benedict College’s Ponder Gallery through Dec. 10.

By Mary Bentz Gilkerson

Colin Quashie’s work is some of the most socially and politically engaged in the state, if not the region. The artist’s unflinching examination of the lingering influence of racism in contemporary American culture is witty and ironic, but definitely far from subtle in the message it conveys. While this might make his work too strong for some, it is work that needs to be made and needs to be seen.

The directness of Quashie’s approach and content makes the artist’s work controversial at times, so much so that getting a chance to see his work can be difficult. Subjective Perceptions, the first solo exhibition of Quashie’s work in Columbia, is on view at Benedict’s Ponder Fine Arts Gallery through Dec. 10. A reception will be held Wednesday from 5 to 7 p.m.

Quashie lives in Charleston but is hardly a typical “Charleston artist.” The artist was born in London in 1963 and raised in the West Indies. His family immigrated to the United States when he was 6, and he grew up in Florida. After attending college for a short time, he joined the Navy working on submarines. He began actively pursuing his art career after his discharge in 1987. The challenging content of his work led to the censorship of an exhibition in 1995. Dropping art for two years, Quashie moved to the West Coast and started writing comedy for Mad TV. He began making art again but has continued writing for the film and television industry.

His interest in social and political engagement ties him to a long line of artists ranging from William Hogarth and Charles Daumier in the 19th century to contemporary painter Kara Walker. Like Walker, there is a sense of urgency to his social commentary that seems driven by the increased ease of image-powered communication today.

Like many contemporary artists, Quashie pulls imagery from pop culture in a way that goes directly back to Andy Warhol. Advertisements, package designs, billboards and coloring books all provide images as well as formats for works that use the language syntax of the media to address issues of race, gender and social equality — or, rather, inequality.

While his manipulation of the formal elements and the painting medium is similar to Warhol, Quashie’s conceptual framework is for the most part very different. Quashie takes Warhol’s examination of the impact of the media on our cultural mythology a step further, using media-based methods to dissect and deconstruct stereotypical views of cultural relationships.

This is precisely what makes his work so challenging not only to the average viewer, but to many art insiders as well. His imagery is very accessible, luring the viewer into a dialogue that then turns their preconceptions upside down. Images that are associated with comfort and ease are turned around to force a sense of unease.

His series of Coloring Book paintings use the innocent, child-like motif of the coloring book to make very strong social statements. In Whack, the viewer is presented with the typical outlined forms with colored marks scribbled across their surfaces, as if a small child has been happily coloring away. The images appears neutral, almost innocent, until the viewer looks closer and realizes that the painting addresses intra-racial as well as inter-racial violence. The piece makes it clear that Quashie is going to reveal and ridicule inequities wherever he finds them.

Cultural inconsistencies, especially in political correctness, unfortunately provide an almost unlimited array of topics for the artist to address. In BLACKBORED – Racialgebra the artist questions the sort of political correctness that led to the firing of a radio host for using the “N” word on air, but let the police in one urban area shoot three African-American suspects more than fifty times — without consequences.

The controversy Quashie’s work sometimes causes is not limited to predominately white institutions. The questions raised by his work challenge deeply held concepts of race and identity across racial divides. His work invites viewers to engage in necessary conversations rather than politely and unquestioningly sustaining the status quo.

New Art - The Resume

2010-10-26T23:37:00.004-04:00

The Resume is the latest installment in my 'Plantation' series. The goal is to have about 20 pieces of art for exhibition that tells the story of the enslaved through the use of modern iconography and concepts to form a connection with the past. The resume is obviously based on the fugitive slave ads placed by many slave owners to secure their property. When I see them, I see a disgruntled worker fed up with his working conditions and without notice decided it was time to move on. Happens all the time with only one exception, we secretly send out resumes ahead of time and try to find another job to transition into. Why shouldn't a slave have done the same thing if it was available to them? Makes sense to me.

Just in case someone thinks I was being funny and mean, the text used on the art is taken directly from fugitive slave ads. I downloaded a huge file of ads and compiled many of the descriptions into each resume. It was against the law to teach a slave to read or write so it makes sense that they would use their owners descriptions of themselves as reference in their fictitious resumes. The only thing I changed was the pronoun usage.

The Resume for Freeman the Shoemaker

35" x 49"

(select to enlarge)

The Resume for Emily the Seamstress

35" x 49"

(select to enlarge)

Welcome Home - Juan Logan!

2010-10-25T21:18:00.004-04:00

One of my favorite artists, Juan Logan, an art professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, recently posted a new video, "Welcome Home". For those unfamiliar with this creative beast of an artist, here is a short write up about the video:

Welcome Home, the title of Juan Logan's video ironically refers to the words of an older white woman welcoming a white family back to the plantation and its values. Images of a young white woman amidst an army of hooded Klansmen, which celebrates their "protection" of her womanhood, alternates with scenes that include a smiling Uncle Remus, happy in the supposed paternalistic embrace of slavery and Jim Crow, a black "coon" cat running scared from an unseen adversary, Civil War battles, and the face of a young black male, of the present as much as of the past, in the process of being erased. Logan digitally alters the imagery in the video to visually magnify its drama and draw attention to the frightening power of racial caricatures to shape our current perceptions and actions.

In Welcome Home, Juan Logan samples and alters imagery and sound from D. W. Griffin's silent film Birth of a Nation (1915), Walt Disney's live action/animation feature Song of the South (1946), Disney cartoons, footage of a 1920 Ku Klux Klan rally at the Washington Monument, and still photographs of the 1858 bombing of Charleston, the latter borrowed from the archives of the Gibbes Museum of Art.

Although born in the South, Logan’s artworks address subjects relevant to the American experience as a whole. At once abstract and representational, his paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, and videos address the interconnections of race, place, and power. They make visible how hierarchical relations and social stereotypes shape individuals, institutions, and the material and mental landscapes of contemporary life. For instance, the silhouette of a head, which appears in many of his works, confronts the viewer to implicate him/her in the politics of social space, even in galleries and museums. He has shown extensively nationally and internationally, has had numerous solo exhibitions, and executed many private and public commissions. Logan’s works can be found in private, corporate, and public collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Gibbes Museum of Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Memphis Brooks Museum, the Zimmerli Museum of Art, and the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art. Logan’s awards include fellowships from the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, the North Carolina Arts Council, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper, the Carolina Postdoctoral Scholars Fellowship, and the Phillip Morris Companies.

I think it's easy to see why I love this man and his art.

Invitation

2010-10-24T14:43:00.000-04:00

Patrick Nagel, Playboy and Ebony Magazine.

2010-10-24T00:38:00.006-04:00

Patrick Nagel has without doubt had the most impact on the visual style of my art. His clean, clinical execution, aggressive use of space and color to create stunning erotic compositions that were then sprinkled with sophisticated design elements combined to produce art that easily defined a generation and made the man an icon to fashion, erotica, advertisers and gawkers like myself.

Patrick Nagel

Patrick Nagel made his presence known in a rather unusual place - underwater. I was an avid artist from my earliest memory but had no real interest in art other than the fact that it afforded easy A's throughout junior and high school. My art teachers begged me to go to art school (one offered a scholarship) but alas, I declined. After a horrible stint in college attempting to pursue a career in medicine (I lasted a year at the University of Florida), I ended up in Houston, Texas, endured two years in that hell hole and joined the Navy to escape. By the way - art had abandoned me. Aimless, I volunteered for submarine duty and in 1983, 600 feet somewhere beneath the north Atlantic Ocean squirming like sperm in what could easily be described as a iron cock the length of a football field, Mr. Nagel appeared from the pages of Playboy Magazine.

Like many before and after, I was immediately taken by the stunning graphics that resided in the midst of Playboy's advisor column. So moved was I that I rounded up every issue I could find, cut out the pics and catalogued them in a journal that I kept. I studied the lines and compositions like a biblical scholar pouring over the dead sea scrolls. I was mesmerized and for the first time in my life, I actually wanted to be an artist! I would spend many days and nights (both the same on submarines) sketching his creations and then applying the style to my own creations. When I was not onboard, I would reproduce large Nagels on the walls of my efficiency apartment (yes, directly on the wall - and no, I didn't get my deposit back). Even the bottom of my Murphy bed had a huge Nagel on it. The style was easy enough to duplicate, but it was the innate combination of design, color and composition that made a Nagel a Nagel and I wanted more than anything to unlock that mystery. Unfortunately, by the time I left the Navy in 1987, Patrick was deceased (he had a heart attack at the age of 38 in 1984) and the art world was left wanting. By then, I could pull any image from the pages of Elle Magazine and create what I felt was a genuine Nagel.

After the Navy I started working at an art gallery and on the side would create my version of Nagel's to sell at mall art stores. I was soon getting commissions and started to adapt the style to feature black women. I wanted to be an illustrator and more importantly, wanted to be associated with a magazine the way Nagel was with Playboy, or Vargas with Esquire and Rockwell with the Saturday Evening Post. Since erotica was the natural style for the work, I sent a few images to a black erotic magazine, Players, out of Los Angeles. They responded favorably and offered a paying gig that I readily accepted and began supplying them with work that was by then a variation between Nagel and Vargas. The collaboration didn't last long as they published but with no contract they refused to pay on time and we soon went our separate ways. By then (around 1990), I had learned all I could learn from Nagel's style and since it was not my own (I was growing tired of people thinking that was all I could do), I retired the style but kept with me the crisp and clean look. The last time I painted anything in that style was a portrait of my then girlfriend, now wife, Cathy (I let her help me paint it).

Cathy's Portrait

So, beyond that, how did Patrick Nagel get my art career started? I told you that like him, I wanted to be associated with a magazine and noticed that Ebony Magazine had little to no graphics in their pages. So I decided to do like Nagel and paint some images (not erotica!) and stuck them in some presentations of Ebony's advisor column which had no art. I mailed them off and a little over a month later, received a message after a lunch break to call John Johnson, the CEO of Ebony Magazine. I was on my way....or so I thought.

It took an hour for me to call Mr. Johnson, that's how nervous I was. In that time I had imagined every question he could possibly ask from inspiration to salary and yes, I would be happy to relocate to Chicago for a job in the art department. Unfortunately, the first question out of his mouth was one I didn't see coming. "Mr. Quashie, what the fuck are you trying to do to my magazine?" And the conversation went downhill from there. Over the next few minutes (it felt like a lifetime), the man unleashed on me and told me how he hated artists, how I knew nothing about magazine publishing, how he started the magazine and built it into the world's best selling black publication and most important, his magazine was number one because they dealt with 'issues relevant to black America.' He hung up shortly thereafter and I found the deepest hole I could find to hide in.

I remembered a cover of an Ebony Magazine a few years back that had 'Prince and his intriguing women.' Really. A picture of Prince and the women he was fucking! Now that was an issue relevant to black America. I was so incensed at the hypocrisy that I painted one of my first large scale paintings - my response to John Johnson - and titled it, 'EBONY - Issues (Ir)relevant to Black America.' I sat around with friends and literally had a page of teaser articles that were simply designed to make fun of the rag.

I photographed the piece, placed it on a notecard (I don't remember what I wrote inside - knowing me, probably 'Fuck you, ass eyes!') and mailed it to John Johnson. No, I did not get a response, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that it felt good and for the first time in my life, I finally figured out what this art thing could be used for. I had literally found my voice (off pitch and untrained as it was), but a voice nonetheless. In that moment I also found my creativity and what triggered it...anger. I was Bruce Banner with paintbrush. From that point on I would give up trying to paint work that matched your drapes and carpet and focus on topics that pissed me off and I would my art to frame my response. From 93 - 96 I slashed and burned my way through art until I burned out in 96 and quit...but that's another story for another post.