February being Black History Month – in which we as a nation celebrate the blessings and all the goodness and enrichment that the African American component of our shared cultural amalgamation has contributed to the culture and personality of these United States (and by extension, to the Western Civilization and beyond) – The Art Gallery at Tacoma Community college hosting its 3rd Annual Black Artists Exhibition.
The show features the work of more than 20 Black artists from the Puget Sound area, touching on themes of ancestry, family, history, personal narrative and bonding with place in this Pacific Northwestern part of the continent.
Expressed in a wide range of media – from glass to collage, print, paint, drawing and digital – this is a dynamic and brightly hued exhibit. The overall feel of the show is vibrant, uplifting and as refreshing as a dip in a clear pool.
Some of the standout pieces in the show (and there are many) include paintings such as Dionne Bonner’s “Sisters I” and “Sisters II,” a pair of large oil paintings which feature members of the artist’s extended family. The scenes are set in Tacoma’s Hilltop. “Sisters I” features the artist’s great-grandmother and her sister walking along Pacific Ave. These are part of a series called “Hilltop Stories, Visual Reflections,” and express Bonner’s rootedness in Tacoma’s community, thus enabling the painter to locate herself within historical context and fostering a sense of belonging centered in the “city of destiny.”
Bonner’s style sets a clear and concise draftsmanship in the midst of an understated color palette, resulting in a poetic image. “Sisters I” presents two smartly dressed figures, one with a folded umbrella and one with book tucked under the arm, striding through a stark cityscape, which is almost suggestive of the haunting works of de Chirico.
Another bold image, one which draws the viewer deep into the gallery space, is Jonarra Swanson’s “Black Fly Girl,” a lyrical nude who floats in space against a yellow background, which is punctuated with flowers, garlands and segments of broken chain. The floating nude’s modesty is maintained by the long, dark ribbons of her hair, which flow in the form of long ponytails that exit and reenter the space of the canvas. The loving detail with which each leaf and flower is rendered hearkens to the vegetative elements in the monumental paintings of a painter like Kehinde Wiley.
Sandra Bocas, who has Caribbean roots, presents gallery guests with a pair of stylized portrait paintings in acrylic, which are so brightly conceived that they are radiant with an energetic aura. The simplified heads and expressive faces in “I Love You, I Love You Too” and “Miles” gaze out from a wonderfully textured red-orange background. Spend time with these if you want your soul battery recharged.
A picture with a powerful presence but a different form of energy is Charde’ Brown’s large standing nude, “Blue Ivy.” The figure is done in blue acrylic paint and collage elements: sheet music, corrugated cardboard, maps, and postcards. The figure is using her hands to cover her face. An art historian might be forgiven for being reminded of Matisse’s “Blue Nude” of 1907 when looking at Brown’s “Blue Ivy.” Brown also did “A Child’s Prayer,” which is a baptismal votive portrait, also in blue tones.
Breyahna Coston’s two interiors on unstretched canvas are a dynamic duo of acrylic paintings. “Barber Chair” and “Green Room” feature chairs as the central characters on the stage of the visual surface. The barber chair and the darkly draped chair in the green room are depicted as individual characters full of personality. It is difficult to resist drawing a comparison to the chair paintings of the Dutch expressionist Vincent Van Gogh.
In addition to these works, there is a plethora of treasures to engage the senses and the intellect in this exhibition. For landscape lovers, see Kadin Harris’ “Temporary Escape,” a dreamy vision in blue and green, which transforms Wapato Lake into a magical episode.
Paintings of scenes and tableaux include Valencia Carroll’s oil still life paintings of rag dolls, fruit and floral elements. Carroll is a masterful wielder of oils. There are Edimbo Lekea’s paintings of masks and African village life. His “Mama Kulutu” depicts a woman using a decorated post to mash food in preparation for a meal. Kcie Monk, on the other hand, presents small, gemlike digital drawings of fairy folk and the magical spirits of the land.
For those who appreciate the human figure, this exhibition features TyResha Jones-Smith’s “Suave,” a peach and terracotta design in which a slender, graceful and highly stylized nude hangs emblematically amidst leaves of palms and ferns. The figure in the gallery space makes a visual echo with Swanson’s “Fly Girl,” which floats on the other side of the room. Jones-Smith’s suave figure is “adorned” in hand-sewn jewelry and beads, marking her as an entity worthy of adoration.
By contrast, Sariyah Ward’s “4 Hundred Years” presents the viewer with streaky vestigial figures, which appear as if viewed from a partially remembered dream or a mental impression visualized as old stories are being told. One can imagine such an image in the mind of the woman looking into something beyond, who is depicted as the side of a face in “POV (Point of View).”
This 3rd annual exhibit of work by those who identify as Black is abundant in portraiture. There are portrayals of important cultural heroes who are grown from within the experience of Black Americans, like Darryl Owens’ “Shorter,” a lithograph of the saxophone guru Wayne Shorter and Jasmine Brown’s image, “Jim Hendrix,” a digital drawing of the Seattle-born musical genius. Brown also presents a contemplative portrait in the upper right corner of a quilt design in “Slave Quilter,” which was made in homage to women’s creativity.
There are no less than two portraits of the literary lion James Baldwin: “Notes of a Native Son,” a digital overlay by Rene Westbrook, and “Conviction,” an acrylic close-up with a Baldwin quotation, by Charles Conner. “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.”
Other portraits include J.W. Harrington’s “Muse,” being a portrait of the painter’s much-accomplished niece. The bust portrait is set against a fascinating geometric background with a flight of stairs rising to the light. (Harrington, incidentally, has a one-man show on view at the Pierce College Puyallup Fine Arts Gallery through March 6.)
Brittany Spencer’s portrait style is more expressionistic – free handed and gestural. She presents the viewers with two lively faces with her watercolor “Black Many Joy; Heart of Gold” and her big acrylic painting “If Heaven Had Phone Calls.” In the latter work, a figure with a smiling face and a dark, purple hue, dressed in a red shirt is holding a green telephone of old fashioned style. In the background stand figures draped in orange, against an orange background. All of the figures, the phone caller included, are surrounded by a nimbus of white energy, depicted via dozens of wide brush strokes. It is as delightful as it is surreal.
Amongst works that are more abstract or design oriented are things like the fascinating Semenia Black’s “The Wood,” which reads from across the room as pop art but poses the question, “How’s your prostrate?” This is part of the artist’s effort to spotlight the importance of early detection for prostate cancer in the Black community.
More abstract are the poured and dripped surfaces of Sabreehna Essien and Lorra Jackson.
Self-described self-taught abstract artist James Butler, is present in the exhibit via “The Sugar Coated Truth,” a big, vertical image of a gingerbread man, who seems to have emerged from a creative process involving multiple layers of color, symbol and mark-making. The texture is so thick that the viewer may have the impression of standing in the presence of a mummified being.
Peculiarly, perhaps, this wide-ranging exhibit is singularly lacking in sculptural work. There are, however, a few examples of glass art. The Hilltop Artists contributed a clear glass vase covered with clear glass medallions and a big glass bowl banded in yellow, orange and red.
Glass Artist Emily Martin, of the Hilltop born and bred, welcomes visitors to the gallery with a jumbo-sized rosary of handmade glass beads, silkscreen and fused glass. Called “Lola’s Rosary,” the loop of beads is displayed on a nice fat slab of lumber. The rosary features a portrait of Martin’s grandmother, as well as a tiny glass jar and a small glass octopus.
Gallery Talks by the artist are scheduled through February 28.
What:
3rd Annual TCC Black Artists Exhibition
When:
Through March 7, Tuesday-Thursday: 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Friday 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Where:
Tacoma Community College, 6501 S. 19th Street, Tacoma WA, Building 4 (located at TCC near the corner of S. 12th and Mildred streets.)
Cost:
Free
Learn More:
https://tacomacc.edu/tcc-life/arts-culture/blackartists