Tuesday, March 1, 2011

"The February Show" @ Ogilvy&Mather

Beyond just a month

The February show,
curated by Jun Lee
(www.jun.lee@ogilvy.com) 
&Heather Hart, in partnership
with Black Diaspora, 
is a multi-level 
sprawling concept 
of black history month, 
or rather what it could be.
The artists passionately project their
view's and critique (s) through stunning
works of art in various media and styles.
Bricks, clothes, paper, paint, video/audio, 
ink, photography, etc. It's all in part, 
a look at black history months 
effectiveness to make us think about 
black American culture, and to 
inspire us to reach beyond what we know as black American culture. 
And it is food for thought. 

From a historical standpoint 
black American culture /African American 
culture only began to gain wide-spread attention
after the civil war. Artists like Henry O. Tanner (1859-1937),
who studied with Thomas Eakins, were instrumental 
in turning the tide of this. The issue has come full circle,
though still there is opposition. Now it's a matter of changing 
the way people on all levels see, think, and feel about black American culture, which is American after all. 
These Artists are in their way at the forefront of  this great issue, 
inspiring people to look beyond the casual mainstream of thought.

Theirs is a mix of tangible symbolism,  post abstract expression, with an edge 
of deconstructivism, melded to critical thought. Visual enigmas created with the delight
of a mad, gifted child. Derrick Adams' (www.derrickadams.com)
work "combines a variety of media to highlight the performative and often duplicitous identities of urban objects, iconography, and architecture". Julia Browns (www.juilabrown.net) work "unpacks the histories and conflict of western culture, re-presenting emblematic images with critical humor in an art context". Ernest A. Bryant III (wwwernestbryant.com) "is propelled by his passion to create new ways of navigating and exploding traditional social structures and cultural forms".

Mike Cloud (www.meulensteen.com"uses systematic painting to reexamine traditions 
of painting, resulting in works that are both beautiful and ugly, playful and academic, self-referential and narrative".Yashua Klos' (www.yashuaklos.net) "Large-scale print collages employ the graphic poignancy and reference the political history of woodblock printing to present a mural-sized combination of imagery". 
Simone Leigh (www.simoneleigh.com) "creates sculpture, video, and installations informed by her interest in African art, ethnographic research,
feminism and performance art". 
Kambui Olujimi (www.kambuiolujimi.com) 
was born in Bedford Stuyvesant, Bklyn. His photography has been presented in various publications, including The New York Times, The Village Voice, Sports Illustrated and Trace magazine". Jessica Ann Peavy (www.jessicaannpeavy.com) "is interested in the natural art of storytelling, especially where the lines between fact and fiction are blurred"

Shinique Smith (www.yvon-lambert.com) "is inspired by the vast nature of 'things' we consume and discard that resonate on a personal and social scale". 
Paula Wilson's (www.saatchi-gallery.com)  "large-scale works are vibrant, layered, multimedia references to still life and landscape painting, print, graffiti, and video art that examine beauty and the complexity of contemporary identity". Devin Troy Strother's (www.devintroystrother.com) "mix-media works create narratives with paper cutting carefully composed and bursting with vibrant color and movement". William Ransom (www.artslant.com) "creates sculptures from scavenged wood that are characterized by their portrayal of regeneration, flux, and balance".  
Jeffery Sims (www.jeff-sims.com) "creates genre paintings in the vein of still life. The collection and juxtaposition of objects in his work is a means to present similarities and transitions between cultures and classes and to provoke viewers to examine their perceptions of self and the other".

Hank Willis Thomas (www.hankwillisthomas.com) "is a photo conceptual artist working primarily with themes related to identity,  history, advertising and popular culture".
Saya Woolfalk's (www.sayawoolfalk.com) works "considers the idea that symbolic and ideological systems can be activated and reimagined through collaboration, imaginative play, and masquerade". Loul Samater's (www.loulsamater.com) work "mixes materials, from balloons to vinyl, into vivid, tactile installations". 
Xaviera Simmons (www.ps1.org) "produces photographic, audio,
performative, sculptural. and video works". Jina Valentine (www.jinavalentine.com)
"creates sculptures using cut paper, and found objects read at once as intricate and dense, 
yet also visibly fragile and delicate". Heather Hart's work(www.heather-hart.com) 
"seeks to spark conversation and examination of our individual perceptions".

 
 


No comments: