An old adage says that if you want to be successful,you must follow your dreams. As a child, I’ve always enjoyed drawing in pencils and markers for my own pleasure. Later I made cards and pictures for other people. I always dreamed of painting, but never thought myself capable of creating that kind of beauty. With encouragement from my mother I began to create beautiful acrylic paintings. An idea from my dad sparked my mirror art line! My mission simply put is to bring happiness to everyone, to delight and inspire you right down to your soul!
Included in the 2011 Global Directory Of WHO’S WHO Honoring Executives & Professionals
The Phenomenally U Brand was conceptualized by Lacey C. Clark!, award-winning, Speaker, Author, Life Coach, filmmaker, educator and CEO of Sisters’ Sanctuary LLC. It was inspired by an interview with Lacey C. Clark! by Tweety Elitou (a Teen Fashion Blogger) of Young, Hip and Chic.
Phenomenally U was created in response to the damaging, demoralizing and destructive images of women in Reality TV programs. The inaugural empowerment summit, co-sponsored by SCORE Philadelphia and
Rolling OUT Magazine, was designed as a series of daylong activities and interactive discussions led by renowned activists, educators, authors, industry experts and parents. The goal was to enlighten and inspire teen girls and young women between the ages of 14 and 24, their mothers and mentors, and other aspiring leaders to:
1. Recognize and repudiate negative media images
2. Embrace and replicate principles of self-love and self-respect
3. Provide tools and resources for their holistic development
4. Expose and encourage images of success
5. Identify risk behaviors to eliminate incidences of domestic violence, dating violence, and intimate partner abuse whether it’s emotional, psychological, physical, sexual or financial
Phenomenally U a is National Movement, seminars/workshop series, summit, a national column, a Tweet Party and action agenda for teens & young women!
by Kara Cutruzzula
It would be easy to revel in the Dionysian pleasures the Bahamas have on offer (conch fritters and rum concoctions are only a few), but as the commonwealth enters its 40th year of independence from Great Britain, even the culturally astute have reason to touch down. An artistic boom is on the horizon—and soon roving gamblers, sun-seekers, and spa obsessives will get a taste of local talent.
Currently, the 1,000-acre construction site in Nassau that will transform into the Baha Mar Hotel and Casino contains piles of steel and vats of concrete, but also an immense opportunity for the region: more jobs, a torrent of tourists, and the evolution of Cable Beach into a chic “Bahamian Riviera.” Yet the $3.5 billion luxury enclave, with four hotels and a 100,000-square-foot casino set to open at the end of 2014, is also promising to double down on contemporary art. At Baha Mar’s recent “topping off” ceremony—a centuries-old act celebrating the completion of a building’s highest floor—Sarkis Izmirlian, the resort’s CEO, announced the property would feature a gallery space and artwork created by local artists. This means that unlike other hotels, guests here won’t eat their breakfasts staring at stock photos of turquoise water, but perhaps will dine under an abstract self-portrait by Bahamian legend Kendal Hanna.
Also announced was the participation of hometown hero Lenny Kravitz, whose design firm will take charge of the resort’s nightclub and villa. Kravitz spent much of his youth in the Bahamas, which he called “one of my favorite places in the world.”
This relaxed, Kravitzian vibe extends to the local arts scene, which appears less competitive than its stateside equivalents. The National Art Gallery of the Bahamas, housed in a sun-yellow 19th-century house, borrows works from the D’Aguilar Art Foundation for its exhibitions, and both will loan to Baha Mar. One of the biggest supporters of the arts is Saskia D’Aguilar, who began her career in finance in New York and started the D’Aguilar Art Foundation after moving to the Bahamas to preserve the artworks collected by her father-in-law, Vincent D’Aguilar. She wants the public to realize that Bahamian culture extends much further than sun and sand. “With Baha Mar coming forward to recognize young and upcoming artists, they bring the culture of the Bahamas to the cusp of recognition,” she says.
Indeed, this means another outlet for local artists, like the late Amos Ferguson, whose intensely colorful and insightful paintings often had his phone number written in careful print at the bottom, should anyone have wanted to get in touch. Or Antonius Roberts, a painter and sculptor who last year opened the charming Hillside House, a studio and gallery space, just a stone’s throw from the National Art Gallery. Almost certainly displayed at Baha Mar will be Susan Katz’s intricate collages, a group of which already inject life into the arrivals terminal of the Nassau airport.
But even before Baha Mar’s opening, Bahamian artists are making a play for a wider stage. On March 7, the Bahamas-based Popopstudios will have a presence at VOLTA NY, an invitational show for emerging artists held in New York. And in June, the Bahamas will participate for the first time (along with seven other newbies) during this year’s edition of the Venice Biennale, the art world’s most renowned exhibition. All of this, and only 40. Just think of what the Bahamas can achieve in middle age.
African American Art – A Brief History
by October Gallery Staff
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Rooted deep in the past, African-American Art presents a valuable insight into United States history and the continued unfolding of the country’s story. Rich in storytelling and craftsmanship, the beginnings of African-American Art have significantly influenced today’s current fine artists. Finding its start during slavery, early examples of the craft include ceramics, instruments and other artifacts dating back to the slave communities of the 17th century. Its onset was sparked by the talents of the early slaves who acquired their skills from the artisan culture of their original countries. Throughout the civil war and into the renown Harlem Renaissance, African American-Art expanded into the public’s consciousness and brilliantly made its mark on the art world.
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African-American Art is a sweeping category that encompasses a broad range from quilters, portraitists, performance artists to contemporary sculptors and painters. Folk Art plays a critical role in the development of early African-American Art and provides a strong iconography that current artists reference. Folk art blends the traditions of craft while embedding a community’s experience, stories and history in the material. For textile artist, Harriet Powers, her intricate quilt work represented the folklore legends and bible stories that impacted her life. While only two of Powers’ quilts remain today, her work is considered to be the finest example of 19th century quilting from the American South.
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Throughout the post-civil war era, more artists were being featured in museums or other exhibitions, however due to intense discrimination, American society placed major limitations on African-American Artists. Instead, many of them went abroad to Europe where they found acceptance in Paris or Munich. There, African-American artists had considerably more freedom to develop their art and expand into industry.
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One of these artists, the renown Henry Ossawa Tanner, found success in Europe after difficult attempts at an art career in the states. Europe readily embraced Tanner and his potential, and he studied under respected French art instructors and began exhibiting at gallery shows. Tanner’s short return to the States produced his acclaimed work, The Banjo Lesson, in 1893. In the piece, Tanner is credited for presenting a visual that isn’t derived from stereotypical images of African-Americans in popular culture. Instead, Tanner focuses on a simple teacher-student moment experienced by a Grandfather and his grandson.
Tanner earned international recognition for his work, and it wasn’t long before the states experienced the Harlem Renaissance which brought forth a surge of historically significant artwork. During this creative era, the Harmon Foundation was established in 1922. It’s founder, William E. Harmon, started the project to patron emerging African-American Art and worked to achieve public and industry recognition for the artists. The painter, Sargent Johnson, received his start through the foundation and went on to be an influential figure in early modern art
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African-American Art continued to transform and develop passed the Harlem Renaissance and into the 80’s with contemporary art. Arguably one of the most recognized African-American artists, Jean-Michele Basquiat, found instant fame in an industry that still lacked diversity. Known for his unmistakable, chaotic style, Basquiat’s work would frequently reference music legend, Charlie Parker and iconography relevant to African-American history. Like Basquiat, artist Kara Walker, shook up the industry with her powerful silhouette paintings that referenced slavery and the old Antebellum south. Today, African-American artists, like Walker, continue to make an impact with new technologies and ideas that are transforming visual culture.
Legendary actor and singer Harry Belafonte has never met a social cause he couldn’t fight or a question he wouldn’t answer. After decades of fighting social injustices around the world, Belafonte clearly believes he’s earned the right to say whatever whenever he wants. History books will surely document the popular actor’s significant contribution to the civil-rights movement, during which he marched and fought side by side with good friend and confidant Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Belafonte was so devoted to the late civil-rights leader that he financially supported the King family long after King was assassinated. The popular actor’s commitment to ending suffering and abuse around the world has continued well into his later years and so has his critique of those who he feels have done far too little.
Recently, the 85-year-old song-and-dance man turned his civic-obligation meter toward the popular celebrity couple Beyoncé and Jay-Z. On their own, both the singer and rapper are arguably two of the best-known entertainers around the world and, with little doubt, two of the most successful African-American entertainers on the planet. Forbes named them the highest-paid couple of the year just last month.
When asked recently about African-American artists and social responsibility he saw little reason to bite his tongue. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter last month, Belafonte was quoted saying this: “I think one of the greatest abuses of this modern time is that we have had such high-profile artists, powerful celebrities. But they have turned their back on social responsibility. That goes for Jay-Z and Beyoncé, for example. Give me Bruce Springsteen, and now you’re talking. I really think he is black.”
Belafonte’s strong words didn’t sit well with one half of the dynamic duo known as Beyoncé and Jay-Z. Shortly after the comments hit the Internet, Beyoncé’s camp sent an email to The Wall Street Journal offering an “abbreviated list of the unselfish work Beyoncé has done and continues to do.” The list included her $100,000 donation to the survivors of Hurricane Ike in 2008 and her performance in MTV’s Hope for Haiti Benefit. She also donated generously to that relief fund as well. But Belafonte isn’t backing down and in a letter written for The Daily Beast to all artists—but in particular African-American artists—the icon explains exactly why to whom much is given, much is required.
“Artists are the gatekeepers of truth. We are civilization’s anchor. We are the compass for humanity’s conscience.”
Sitting in a tiny theater in the basement of the Schomburg Library in Harlem in 1946, Paul Robeson, one of the great men of the 20th century, delivered these words to a group of young aspiring African-American actors. I was one of them. Most of us in the group had served in the war that had just ended. Very little from the victory of World War II rewarded the majority of black Americans who served in that conflict. In its aftermath, the continued denial of our human rights, the alarming number of black veterans being murdered in America, and the escalation of oppressive laws prohibited participation in the democratic affairs of our nation, setting the stage for the social upheavals that ensued.
In the years that followed, Robeson would pay a terrible price for his commitment to our struggle. Those of us who loved and respected him would become the beneficiaries of his courage and sacrifice.
African-Americans have had little other than the arts to inform us about the truth of our history and the treasures of our legacy. Our ability to survive the cruelty of centuries of oppression is nourished through the stories we inherited from our gatekeepers. The songs and tales of heroism and dignity handed down to us from our truth tellers guide us in our continuing pursuit of the American Dream.
The merchants of art, the controllers of systems, are first and foremost merchants. For them, art is a commodity and artists are measured not so much by the content of their creations but by the price they bring in the marketplace. If their offering challenges the myths and distortions about black existence and threatens the status quo, most artists learn soon enough that they’re hired to entertain, not to jolt consciousness. No room for message. There are exceptions but so minimal are they that the power of those whose intention is to suffocate truth and stifle change obscures the existence of the exceptions.
Today these architects of the new empire have learned much from their mentors. No need to reveal themselves in shiny black boots and large banners with huge swastikas. All that is needed is to play the chord of the greatest of human flaws…greed. It is the destruction of our moral compass and, at a terrible cost, we accommodate. Unbridled capitalism is the mantra and we sing its song. Everything and everyone is becoming a commodity, and we struggle with the burden of its consequence. Art and artists have become its pitchmen. We adorn its most vulgar demands. We glorify greed, we honor violence, and we make heroes of the slaughterer.
African American Museum, Fair Park, Dallas, Texas, USA
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – When the doors opened at 11 a.m. Wednesday morning, a group of seniors from Dallas’ Kiest Park Senior Center were hopping off a DART bus, heading for their first tour.
Minnie Redmond had never visited the African American Museum before Wednesday.
When she stepped from one image of legendary gospel singer Mahalia Jackson to another, she focused not only on the popular exhibition, but the creators of the art.
“It’s great. I’m really enjoying it”, the Sunday school teacher said.
Redmond now joins a list of thousands who’ve visited the Fair Park-based museum. The AAM is a popular cultural museum, dedicated to the preservation and magnification of African American contributions to art, culture and history.
It offers four distinctive gallery halls, where national exhibitions are provided to the public. There is one permanent gallery hall dedicated to the history of Black Dallas.
“Facing The Rising Sun-Freedman’s Cemetery” focuses on Dallas’ first established community at the turn of the 20th Century.
Dozens of photographs of families, schools, businesses and social groups line the walls of the gallery. They tell the story of the descendants of Dallas’ Freedman’s community, and black families that lived under Jim Crow laws.
Museum Director Dr. Harry Robinson admits the exhibit was not intended to be a permanent display, but everything changed because of demand.
“People kept coming asking for it”, Dr. Robinson said.
Now, there are plans to extend the exhibit.
The museum also offers tours of still standing architectural structures built by African Americans. The senior citizens group visiting the AAM today discussed how tied they were to the many artifacts on display.
“We lived in this era”, one woman whispered to another.
Dr. Robinson noted the importance of all generations being able to see the exhibits. “We say the museum is a place of celebration and transformation,” he said.
The African American Museum is located at 3536 Grand Ave. Dallas, TX. Fair Park.
February 3 – April 28, 2013 On Loan from the Auburn Avenue Research Library
This exhibition documents and pays homage to an incredible achievement – the survival of kinship ties and family pride among black people through the horrific experience of slavery. Up until 1978 when the project that collected these photographs was launched, there had been relatively little research on the African
American family.
Two years earlier, in 1976, the country had celebrated its Bicentennial. Coincidentally, at the same time that Americans as a whole were reflecting on their country’s roots, Alex Haley published a book that would forever change how African Americans perceived their own. Roots reminded everyone that their family histories were richer and more complex than their recent memories and sparked an unprecedented interest in genealogy. Here in Georgia, this interest gave rise to the African-American Family History Association. In 1978, the Association began planning an exhibit on the history of Black families in Georgia as part of its goal “to engage the public in the research and appreciation of the family history of a people whose heritage has generally been unrecognized.”
The project developed by Carole Merritt, focused on the period from 1750 to the twentieth century in an attempt to get a general view of the changes that had taken place in black family life as well as the “continuities” that had endured over 200 years. More than 100 Georgia families participated, contributing family histories, photographs, and other documents. The first“Homecoming” exhibition was held in 1982 at the main branch of the Atlanta Public Library. The photographs selected for this current exhibition date from the late 1800’s to the mid 1960’s and chronicle moments in family life that we all recognize – birth, childhood, courtship, marriage,
and death.
For African-Americans, home has had many meanings. As a place of origin, it was Africa; as a place of birth and residence, America. For many, home has been Georgia. In the sense of family, home has transcended place and circumstance. Bloodlines extended from Africa to America, and kinship survived slavery, oppression, war, and migration. – from the book Homecoming: African-American Family History in Georgia by Carole Merritt
Museum Hours Tuesday – Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday & Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Closed to the public on Mondays and National Holidays
ADA Accessible – 1st Floor. Wheelchair lift is located in rear of facility accessed by Oak Street. Please call for assistance. Guided Tours Available.
“When the subject is strong, simplicity is the only way to treat it.” – Jacob Lawrence
Jacob Lawrence was an American painter best known for his portrayal of essential moments in African American history. Influenced by Cubism, Lawrence used bright colors and broad, flat shapes throughout his long and prolific career.
This print shows when, in 1965, hundreds of civil rights marchers started on a peace march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama led by the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Their goal was to secure voting rights for blacks in America. Just outside Selma, at the Edmond Pettus Bridge, local law enforcement officials repeatedly turned back the marchers by verbally and physically abusing them; however, after several days the marchers were allowed to continue. Less than five months later, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that outlawed discriminatory voting practices in the U.S.
After stepping foot on the music scene in the late 1950s as a solo artist, Jackie Wilson forever changed the face of Pop Culture. The late music icon, known for his dynamic stage presence and cross-over hits, has inspired legions of entertainers from Elvis Presley to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson among countless others.
Directed by Da’Vine Joy Randolph, the production is set during Wilson’s final complete performance on September 28 1975, the day before he collapsed live on stage.
During an interview with The Huffington Post, Gregory opened up on his latest production, which also stars Lillias White as R&B singer LaVern Baker.
Earlier in your career you starred as Jackie Wilson in “The Jackie Wilson Story.” How did the role help prepare you for “The Eve of Jackie”?
It was actually a show that paralleled my career and helped push me forward to being seen in New York. And so, just paying homage to this man and legend has been second nature for me to go back and recall the body language and the character. So with revisiting the role, of course I have footage of some of the stuff that I used to do before, but additionally what I did was watch everything that I did before and then I strip myself from all of that, cause I didn’t want to do a repeat performance of what I did ten years ago.
And then by me doing this show, it’s a real time show of him at the end of his life. I get to play him at a very specific point as opposed to playing him during his entire life. So, it’s been cool.
Since the production is considered a one-man show, are you incorporating any interaction with the audience?
I’ll definitely interact with the audience. The show has a lot of Improv to it, so it has that element of danger to it where I’m interacting with the audience and you don’t know what’s going to happen. And I don’t know what’s going to happen either. We’re just in that present moment and we’ll just see what happens.
What initially sparked the idea for the show?
When I did the show ten years ago a woman came up to me at the Apollo Theater and it was towards the end of the show, and she goes “don’t go to the Latin Casino,” and I go, “What!?” So I just kept singing and it stuck with me. So I went backstage after the show and I said to all of the cast, “This crazy lady just came up to me and said, “Don’t go to the Latin Casino.”
Now I knew what the “Latin Casino” was [where Jackie Wilson collapsed on stage], so it had me thinking like, “what if someone would’ve told him ‘Don’t go to the Latin Casino,’ I wondered what would’ve happened.” And so I just thought, I wondered what that day before was like for him. And so I was just living with that idea.
Are you also performing the same set list from the concert?
I think I’m probably doing more songs. I’m not sure of the exact set list, but I am doing a bulk of songs from his career. I’m doing 16 songs in 90 minutes.
Aside from the forthcoming date at 54 Below, are there any plans to extend the show?
Yes, the show has been extended again, but it’ll be in Chicago March 24 at the Black Ensemble Theater at 7:30. And the Black Ensemble Theater is we originally did “The Jackie Wilson Story.” So I’m coming back home. [Laughs] “The Eve of Jackie” is set to take place at 54 Below on March 4th at 9:30PM. For tickets, click here.
This print shows when, in 1965, hundreds of civil rights marchers started on a peace march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama led by the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Their goal was to secure voting rights for blacks in America. Just outside Selma, at the Edmond Pettus Bridge, local law enforcement officials repeatedly turned back the marchers by verbally and physically abusing them; however, after several days the marchers were allowed to continue. Less than five months later, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that outlawed discriminatory voting practices in the U.S.
Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., lead a group across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., Sunday, March 3, 2013. They were commemorating the 48th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, when police officers beat marchers when they crossed the bridge on a march from Selma to Montgomery.(AP Photo/Dave Martin)
With the Supreme Court having heard oral arguments on the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act last week, the Obama administration weighed in again Sunday with another impassioned defense of the 1965 law.
“For our nation’s Department of Justice, the fair and vigorous enforcement of this and other vital protections — and their defense against all Constitutional challenges — constitutes a top priority,” read Attorney General Eric Holder’s prepared remarks for a speech he was set to give at the Edmund Pettus Bridge Crossing Jubilee. “Let me be clear: although our nation has indeed changed, although the South is far different now, and although progress has indeed been made, we are not yet at the point where the most vital part of the Voting Rights Act can be deemed unnecessary. The struggle for voting rights for all Americans must continue — and it will.”
The crossing jubilee was an appropriate setting for Holder to make a vocal defense of the Voting Rights Act, as he has done before. Politicians and civil rights leaders have descended on Selma, Ala., for the annual commemoration of “Bloody Sunday,” the March 7, 1965, attack by armed officers on civil rights protesters that helped spur the groundbreaking legislation. Vice President Joseph Biden made the pilgrimage as well.
“We saw in stark relief the rank hatred, discrimination and violence that still existed in large parts of the nation,” the vice president said Sunday, recalling news coverage of the beatings.
Despite the reminiscence and public support, the administration faces a difficult challenge in protecting the full Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court is hearing a challenge from Shelby County, Ala., to Section 5 of the act, which requires that certain states and other jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination obtain clearance from the federal government for changes to their voting laws.
Most legal observers have predicted that the court will end up ruling against that provision of the law. During oral argument, Chief Justice John Roberts was sharp in his questioning of its efficacy today, though the numbers he used to make his case have been called into question.
(BPT) – Despite its negative reputation, the number 13 doesn’t always have to be unlucky. Take these top 10 decor trends for 2013 from design experts, manufacturers and trend forecasters across the country. They’re fresh, fun and sure to bring good fortune to any home.
A splash of color
Industry leader Pantone’s annual fashion color report sets the tone for home decor as well as clothing, and the spring 2013 report is no exception. Its softer-hued palette of Dusk Blue, Lemon Zest, African Violet, Grayed Jade, Linen and Tender Shoots is emboldened by Monaco Blue, Poppy Red, Emerald and Nectarine. Marc Thee, founder of the No. 1 residential interior design firm in the country, also sees a move toward pure color palettes such as cream and sea glass, khaki and white, or neutral with a pop of yellow.-
Not your mama’s wallpaper
Repositionable wallpaper is a decorating mainstay, says Todd Imholte, president of Murals Your Way, whose website, www.muralsyourway.com, is the top online destination for wall murals worldwide. The company’s10 collections of peel-and-stick wallpaper are available in such themes as Vintage, Dots, Flower Prints and Mostly Modern, and can be removed and reused hundreds of times without losing their adhering qualities. Because the company offers color matching, customers can match their repositionable wallpaper to an existing paint color, updated decor or the new Pantone color palette.
Cooking up smart ideas
Next year’s contemporary kitchen will include European frameless laminate cabinetry, multi-tasking appliances, hands-free faucets, and increased smartphone and tablet functionality, according to Jamie Gold, a certified independent kitchen and bath designer in San Diego, Calif. Value-oriented remodels will remain popular, she predicts, with homeowners incorporating existing flooring, fixtures, cabinets and/or appliances into their design plans to save money and retain favorite design elements.
Let it shine
Jeff Dross, senior product manager of Kichler Lighting, says energy-efficient LED products will continue to dominate lighting, and will be prevalent in coves, tray ceilings, toekicks, and under and above cabinets. Chrome and polished nickel will appeal to the emerging “Y” generation and baby boomers modernizing their retirement homes. Tall, slender outdoor lanterns in contemporary, cottage and transitional styles will work well for those in smaller urban spaces.
Heavy metal
Susan Goldstick of Susan Goldstick, Inc. predicts home furnishings will also shine in 2013. New metals such as rose gold and gun metal will be mixed, and pierced, hammered and oxidized textural metals will be especially popular. Vendors will add metal to their wood pieces, and faux animal print metalics will provide texture and reflective light in the textiles arena.
There’s no place like home
Even as the economy shows signs of improving, homeowners still find comfort in “cocooning” in the warmth and safety of their homes, says Graeme Smith, conceptual designer at Second Nature kitchens.- Adding an on-trend color such as cranberry or velvety chocolate to a soothing palette of muted tones and delicate detailing creates timeless interiors, and incorporating vintage pieces fosters a sense of nostalgia, heritage and solidity.
Woodn’t it be nice?
Next year’s trendy furniture will boast reclaimed wood or reclaimed-looking synthetic wood, according to Lenny Kharitonov, president of Unlimited Furniture Group, Inc. Combinations of wood and metal will be popular, such as a desk with a wood top and an iron base. Thee also sees a new freedom to mix metals, linen or stone into wood, with the juxtaposition of materials and finishes creating a beautiful combination.
Watch your step
Lori Kirk-Rolley, senior marketing director at Daltile, notes that one of the biggest style trends of the year will be porcelain tile that emulates the look of hardwood in high-traffic areas, offering the natural beauty of wood with the long-lasting durability and ease of maintenance of tile. Rectangular-sized tiles – particularly those in long, linear plank styles – will remain popular in floor and wall applications.
Back to nature
Consumers’ eco-friendly focus on using organic, sustainable materials will continue into 2013. Orange, Calif.-based Budget Blinds recommends woven wood shades made from bamboo, grasses, jute, reeds, rattan and other natural renewable resources for honest, simple beauty. Smith suggests using timber and wicker furniture, ribbed and woven finishes on accessories, and layered wool throws in the living area of the kitchen to bring a sense of the outdoor into the home.
You can judge a book by its cover
Exterior design and landscaping say just as much about a home as its interior architectural counterparts. Artist and designer Pablo Solomon touts stone, concrete and brick that blend into the environment, requires little upkeep, and is superior weather susceptible wood decks, rust-prone metals and dulling plastics. He also sees increased use of eco-friendly native plants to save water and reduce pesticides.
By JILIAN FAMA | ABC OTUS News – Wed, Feb 27, 2013
Rosa Parks, the civil rights pioneer, made history again today by becoming the first African American woman to have her likeness depicted in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall.
Parks’ monument is a part of the Capitol Art Collection which hosts 180 pieces of art; her statue will stand among nine other females featured in the National Statuary Hall Collection.
Busts of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sojourner Truth have been added to the Capitol Art Collection but Rosa Parks will be the first full-bodied statue of an African American featured in the Capitol. Her statue is expected to lay the ground for other African American statues to be added to the hall, including Frederick Douglass.
Eva Malecki, communications officer for the Architect of the Capitol, explains to ABC News that though Parks’ statue will stand among those included in the National Statuary Hall, to date there are no African-American statues memorialized in the Statuary Hall Collection.
The collection honors men and women who are “illustrious for their historic renown,” according to its founding legislation. Today Parks joined the ranks of those honored as her monument was unveiled in Washington, D.C.
The collection in the United States Capitol Building is comprised of statues donated by individual states to honor persons notable in their history. The creation of the collection was authorized by the Congress in 1864 and allows for each state to contribute two statues of choice.
Parks, who is most famous for her refusal to give up her bus seat to a white male in 1955, has been honored in this country before. The bus that she rode was memorialized and now sits in the Henry Ford Museum near Detroit. Thousands of visitors who were inspired by her message board the bus to commemorate the life of Parks, who would be 100 years old today.
In 1884, Rep. Justin Morrill suggested utilizing the vacated House chamber between the Capitol Rotunda and the new House chamber to host statues to honor prominent figures from every state. As time passed the Hall became overcrowded, calling for Congress to pass a resolution in 1933 allowing for the dispersion of statues in other rooms and wings of the Capitol.
So how did Rosa Parks make it into the big house?
Her monument was commissioned by Congress which then directly provided a commission to the artist. Statues included in the Statuary Hall Collection, however, have to go through a more rigorous process.
Proceedings for the donation of a statue come as a gift of a state, not an individual or group.
The process begins in the state legislature where an enactment of a resolution names the citizen to be commemorated and cites his or her qualifications and prominence.
A committee or commission to represent the state in selecting the sculptor is then specified, and finally a method for obtaining the funds to carry the resolution is discussed.
Though the process of honoring people in Statuary Hall dates back to the 19th century, it was only recently that the honorees have diversified.
The Hall mainly features white males but since 2000 the number of female and minority honorees has risen. Sakakawea, Helen Keller, Sarah Winnemucca, Po’pay and Washakie have all contributed to diversifying the Hall.
Henry Taylor, who lives in Los Angeles, paints fast, loose and sensuously on canvases great and small. Portraiture is his work’s center of gravity. His subjects include friends, relatives, acquaintances from the art world and off the street, and heroes from the worlds of sports and politics. Along the way he takes in downbeat cityscapes patrolled by cop cars and envisions allegories of spiritual trauma in the Land of the Free.
Filmmaker Claudio Conti turns his Camera on unconventional but truly original African American Artist Henry Taylor for this Documentary Portrait currently airing on Wmag.com as part of a series on LA Artists for W Magazine’s November 2011 Art Issue.
James Cohan Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Bold as Love, an exhibition of new works by SHINIQUE SMITH on view February 15th through March 24th. This is the artist’s debut exhibition at James Cohan Gallery.
In Paul D. Miller’s (aka DJ Spooky) catalogue essay for the artist’s 2010 solo exhibition at MoCA North Miami, he describes Shinique Smith’s unique ability to synthesize media into “cubes of consciousness rendered into oblique strategies of envisioning, making the anonymous spaces of urban life become illuminated manuscripts of the here and now.”
Shinique Smith is inspired by the vast vocabulary of things we consume and discard. Examining the ways in which these objects resonate on a personal and social scale, Smith pursues the graceful and spiritual qualities of the written word and the everyday. In this new body of work, a free flow between paintings and sculptures ruminates on the interplay of chaos and restraint, balance and connection, and what is revealed and concealed.
In the exhibition Bold as Love, installations in each of the three gallery spaces trace a distinct phase of a conceptual journey. A central energizing motif throughout is the mandala, a form chosen for its geometry, both sacred and mathematical, and as a tool for fusing the visceral with the cerebral. The front gallery serves as a place of transition, an antechamber where calm and intensity harmonize in denim painted with bleach and in relief. Paintings and sculptures in the main gallery are installed in pairs and larger groupings. The potential energy bound within Smith’s hanging sculptures finds its kinetic expression in the gestural texts of her canvases. Ratios of the human body are referenced by impressions of the artist’s form both on large-scale paintings and in sculptures, stuffed and created from her own dresses. The exhibition culminates in the back gallery with an immersive environment featuring clustered hanging sculptures whose tethers drape to the floor in spiraling script.
As artist Kehinde Wiley observes, “The work of Shinique Smith navigates the leading edge of the written word. Her installations of extremely mixed visual signifiers marry literature, Islamic architecture, and hip hop music to investigate and expound the narrative capabilities of the language.”
UPCOMING in 2013, Shinique Smith has been commissioned by NEW YORK CITY’S MTA ARTS FOR TRANSIT to create a permanent public work at the new Mother Clara Hale Bus Depot in Harlem (Lenox Ave and 146th Street). This extensive project features a large-scale mosaic across the façade and laminated glass windows throughout overall measuring 6,672 square feet of artwork. Currently on view Shinique Smith: Firsthand, a collaboration with LACMA and the Charles White Elementary School including Smith’s new work based on her experience within the school and community, art produced by students, and objects the artist selected from LACMA’s Costume and Textile collection. Also in 2013, BIRMINGHAM MUSEUM OF ART in Alabama has commissioned Smith to create a large-scale sculptural installation for Etched in Collective commemorative exhibition for the 50th anniversary of the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing, opening August 18, curated by Jeffreen Hayes. A solo exhibition will be mounted at the MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON from October 2014 to March 2015, curated by Jen Mergel.
SHINIQUE SMITH lives and works in Hudson, NY. Past solo exhibitions include MoCA, North Miami, Madison MCA, Studio Museum in Harlem, and Boulder MCA. The artist’s work is included in the collections of Brooklyn Museum, Denver Art Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Studio Museum in Harlem, and Whitney Museum of American Art, amongst others. She was a fellow of Joan Mitchell Foundation in 2008 and Skowhegan School in 2003.
For further information, please contact Jane Cohan at jane@jamescohan.com or by telephone at 212.714.9500.
Kehinde Wiley, Benediter Brkou (The World Stage: Israel), 2011. Oil and gold and silver enamel on canvas, 115 x 79 ⅝ in. (framed). Private collection. Image via thecjm.org. Kehinde Wiley | The World Stage: Israel
The first major exhibition in San Francisco featuring this nationally–known African American artist
The Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM) presents Kehinde Wiley | The World Stage: Israel, the first major exhibition in San Francisco of African American artist Kehinde Wiley (b. 1977)—one of the most significant young artists working today. Wiley is known for vibrant, large-scale paintings of young, urban, T-shirt clad men of color he encounters on streets around the world and renders in the heroic poses typical of classical European portraiture.
The exhibitionis part of the artist’s ambitious and multifaceted series, The World Stage, that has taken him to China, India, Brazil, and beyond, in an exploration of diasporas, identity, cultural hybridity, and power. The eighteen portraits in Kehinde Wiley | The World Stage: Israel depict men of diverse religions and ethnicities influenced by urban culture, who Wiley met in Israel—Ethiopian Jews and Jewish and Arab Israelis. Wiley has placed these subjects against vivid, ornate backgrounds inspired by Jewish textiles and papercuts, and has finished each with a hand-carved wooden frame crowned with emblems borrowed from Jewish decorative tradition.
As part of the exhibition, the CJM is including a selection of historical textiles and works on paper, like those from which Wiley draws inspiration, borrowed from The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at UC Berkeley, and the Skirball Museum, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles.
Kehinde Wiley
Born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, Wiley early on encountered the world of classical European portraiture in the galleries of the Huntington Library, which he frequented as part of free weekend art classes his mother enrolled him in when he was eleven years old. The works in the Huntington collection had a profound impact on him. “It was sheer spectacle, and of course beauty. I had no way of digesting it. But at the same time, there was this desire to somehow possess it or belong to it,” says Wiley.
Wiley went on to earn his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute (1999) and MFA from Yale University (2001) and became an Artist-in-Residence at The Studio Museum in Harlem. It was in Harlem that Wiley formulated and consolidated his unique vision and approach to portraiture, catalyzed by the daily procession of over-the-top urban fashion and male bravado he witnessed on 125th Street and by a chance encounter with a cast-off piece of paper.
“It was a mug shot of an African American man in his twenties and it made me begin to think about portraiture in a radically different way,” says Wiley. “I began thinking about this mug shot itself as portraiture in a very perverse sense, a type of marking, a recording of one’s place in the world in time. And I began to start thinking about a lot of the portraiture that I had enjoyed from the eighteenth century and noticed the difference between the two: how one is positioned in a way that is totally outside their control, shut down and relegated to those in power, whereas those in the other were positioning themselves in states of stately grace and self-possession.”
It was then that Wiley began to apply the visual vocabulary and conventions of glorification, history, wealth, and prestige to the representation of a group of people absent from museum walls—urban black and brown men. He emerged on the art scene in 2003 with a series of portraits of young Harlem men staged in grand poses of the European portrait tradition while dressed in the baggy jeans and logo-emblazoned T-shirts so pervasive on the street. In what is now a signature component of his portraits, the subjects vie for visual attention with the vibrant, richly detailed patterns that fill the background and often threaten to overtake the figures.
In order to find appropriate models, Wiley began what he calls “street casting” for black males between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, who exhibit a certain type of alpha-male energy and even homoerotic beauty. The men come to his studio where they leaf through illustrated art history books to choose a figure that serves as the model for the pose they want to emulate. They are then photographed in that stance. Their choice of clothing is entirely their own. Wiley uses various views from the photo shoots to create his portraits.
Beginning in 2006, Wiley expanded his vision with his series The World Stage, traveling the globe to explore the black diaspora and the global phenomenon of urban African American youth culture, something he has found to be a powerful and persistent means by which people interact with American culture. His focus has been on countries that he believes are part of the conversation in the twenty-first century. The resulting series of paintings from China, India, Brazil, Senegal, Nigeria, and Israel each uniquely map the models within their native or adopted countries and explore their local culture, incorporating aspects of regional history, traditional patterns and designs, and sly nods to the social and political milieu in which they live. “I wanted to mine where the world is right now,” Wiley explains, “and chart the presence of black and brown people throughout the world.”
Wiley now lives and works between New York and Beijing. His paintings are in the collections of over forty museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Hammer Museum, High Museum of Art, and Brooklyn Museum. His work has been the subject of numerous monographs including a comprehensive Rizzoli publication released in 2012.
The Exhibition
For The World Stage: Israel, Wiley scouted for subjects in the discos, malls, bars, and sporting venues of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Lod in 2010. The eighteen portraits in the exhibition present a kaleidoscopic picture of contemporary Israeli diversity, a society at the physical and symbolic intersection of Africa, Europe, and Asia. Wiley’s subjects are from diverse religions and ethnicities—Israeli Jews, Ethiopian Jews, and Israeli Arabs—revealing an Israel that is more ethnically diverse and globally attuned than most people might realize.
Many of Wiley’s models for The World Stage: Israel are Beta Israel—Jews from Ethiopia—whose families immigrated to Israel (made aliyah) in the 1980s and 1990s during Operation Moses and Operation Solomon, two Israeli-sponsored airlifts. A featured figure in several of the paintings is Kalkidan Mashasha, a popular Ethiopian hip-hop musician who has used music as a means of understanding his Ethiopian Jewish Israeli identity and the repression he initially felt in his adopted country.
For this series, Wiley has placed his models against ornate backgrounds inspired by the decorative patterns of Jewish textiles and papercuts, an intricate form of folk and ceremonial art. Wiley chose the designs for their decorative and symbolic impact.
Wiley also designed hand-carved wooden frames crowned with emblems borrowed from the Jewish decorative tradition: the hands of a priest (Kohen) and the Lion of Judah, symbolizing blessing, power, and majesty. Each frame also supports text. For the portraits of Jewish men the Ten Commandments are used. For Arab men, Wiley chose the plea of Rodney King, victim of a police beating that sparked race riots in the artist’s home city of Los Angeles in 1991: “Can we all get along?”
Also on view as part of the exhibition is a selection of historical textiles and works on paper like those from which Wiley has drawn inspiration. The traditional works from the collection of The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at UC Berkeley and the Skirball Museum, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, include lavishly decorated Torah ark curtains and intricate papercuts.
A short documentary film detailing Wiley’s travel to Israel to create the works in the exhibition is also on view.
Items available in the Museum Store include skateboard decks ($79), dog tag necklaces ($18), and beach towels ($95) featuring select portraits from the exhibition. Limited edition marble busts ($1400-$1600) will also be available as well as catalogs for Wiley’s various World Stage series ($40) and a beautifully illustrated monograph published by Rizzoli in 2012 ($65).
Kehinde Wiley | The World Stage: Israel is organized by the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco. Major support for this exhibition has been provided by the Columbia Foundation and The Jim Joseph Foundation. Supporting sponsorship has been provided by Siesel Maibach and Eta and Sass Somekh.
The Koret and Taube Foundations are the Lead Supporters of the 2012/13 exhibition season.
