Dark Matter, is …an offering to those forces in the universe that would have us prevail and emerge out of the shadows of love during these times of great chaos, uncertainty, upheaval, darkness and ignorance.
– Folayemi Wilson, from exhibition catalogue for Dark Matter: Celestial Objects as Messengers of Love in These Troubled Times
Manipulated Video: An Explosion on the Sun, 2016, courtesy NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
The Latest
Upcoming | Design Dysphoria
NYC Design Week
Design Dysphoria is a queer designer-led exhibition of 17 architects, artists and designers and will open in Bushwick, New York during NYCxDesign. Co-curated by designers and founders of Studio S II, Erica Sellers and Jeremy Silberberg, textile artist Liz Collins, and interdisciplinary glass and performance artist, Grace Whiteside, the exhibition emphasizes the importance of queer creative spaces to highlight how they inform LGBTQIA+ art and design.
Studio S II, 53 Scott Ave, Suite 401, Brooklyn, NY, USA
May 18 – 25, 2024
Reception: May 17, 7 -10pm
Panel Discussion: May 19, 3 - 5pm, Queer Brunch style
Just Closed | A Love Supreme
Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst Illinois
Congratulations to my former studio mate and co-founder of blkHaUS studios Norman Teaque. His exhibition A Love Supreme, was received to huge acclaim and I was happy to be included in the accompanying show McCormick House Reimagined, curated by Norman and Rose Camara that included over 30 local Chicago artists. Credit: Installation of A Love Supreme, Elmhurst Art Museum, Photo by Siegfried Mueller.
The Studio
Penland Residency
This winter I enjoyed a Distinguished Artist Residency at the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina. For two weeks, I was able to shift priorities – a luxury for an artist/academic – and devote time in the studio to some of my projects. You might think I was in the woodshop, but I spent time doing textile work, an addition to my practice I started during Covid when I did not have access to my usual studio during the pandemic.
During my time there I was interviewed by the lovely Sarah Rachel Brown, host and producer of the Perceived Value podcast, who interviews artists about how they “… make it all happen.” We talked about my time at Penland, other residencies, and my role as an associate dean in the College of Art & Architecture at Penn State. You can listen to the episode here.
A New Studio
When Sarah knocked on the door of the Penland studio I was working at, I was in the process of closing the deal on a commercial building in Philly. I am happy to say the deal went through. I now own the building my studio is in! No more renting, getting kicked out, our fixing it up only for a landlord to charge the next artist more rent. A longtime dream now realized, it will take me some time to organize it and I hope to open it up to my community for various activities and creative commerce. I’ll be sure to let you know when I have a public unveiling.
Museum Acquisition |
NMAAAC
I don’t think I suffer from imposter syndrome, but at times I still feel like a beginner, and not sure if that is the same thing. I could not be more thrilled to have work acquired by the National Museum of African American Arts & Culture (NMAAAC) in Washington, D.C. Typochair (Chair/Chair), 2004, a prototype I developed in graduate school at RISD, bridges the graphic design profession I came from prior to my graduate studies, and the new vocation I was studying in furniture design. Can you find all the elements that spell the word “chair.” Trained to always consider the materiality and entire lifecycle of an object, the aluminum components come apart so it can easily be shipped as a flat pack. In the photo on the right, I’m assembling the chair for NMAAAC staff at their D.C. warehouse.
Museum Residency | Museum for Art in Wood
This summer I have the pleasure of being the Scholar-in-Residence at the Museum for Art in Wood in Philadelphia. Over an 8-week period, I will interact with seven other residents in the museum’s Wingate Artist Residency Program in Wood (WARP). Up now and during the residency timeframe, Gina Siepel’s thoughtful exhibition: To Understand a Tree curated by Director Jennifer-Navva Milliken, serendipitously compliments the research I will be doing exploring new books about the inner life of trees and investigating how tress hold and mark memory.
Public Art in Chicago
Rendering courtesy of Perkins & Will
The site of my work for a new train station in Chicago’s Near Westside neighborhood is making progress. In the photo on the right, the wall is being constructed that will hold the artwork’s almost one million 1/4”ceramic tiles that will be installed this month and the final station work will be completed later this year. Along with archival photographs I used from the Chicago History Museum and the symbolic image of the prairie, the composition references the pioneering work of Florence Kelly, who went door-to-door during a hot summer in 1892 to collect demographic data on social and working conditions in the area that led to establishing sociology as a discipline, introduced infographics, and instigated stricter working conditions in sweatshops.
New In My Library
Trans Hirstory in 99 Objects
Organized by Chris Vargas
Where is Africa? Vol. 1
Emmanuel Admassu
Anita N, Bateman
An Indigenous Present
Organized by Jeffrey Gibson
Designing the Domestic Posthuman
Book by Colbey Emmerson Reid and Dennis M. Weiss
Spring 2024 Newsletter
Happy Spring!
It’s been awhile and I hope you all are doing well and successfully negotiating all the challenges of our time. It’s an amazing and unprecedented time to be black and an artist at the same time that we all are facing unparalleled challenges to our humanity, the ability to get along, and the question of the inevitability of life on our planet. There is so much at stake this November.
I try to remember in my small little world, my work is important; to keep at it, to rest when I need to (thanks Trisha), love on someone or something every day, be grateful, treasure moments of joy, and celebrate my accomplishments. Some of what’s going on since I last reached out…