Photography

Had She Paints or Clay...**

Top left: Sometimes the King is A Woman by Amy Sherald at the Hauser & Wirth Gallery until October 26, 2019Top right: Photo of Frida Kahlo by Nickolas Murray at the Brooklyn MuseumBottom left: Brick House by Simone Leigh on the High Line 30th St…

Top left: Sometimes the King is A Woman by Amy Sherald at the Hauser & Wirth Gallery until October 26, 2019

Top right: Photo of Frida Kahlo by Nickolas Murray at the Brooklyn Museum

Bottom left: Brick House by Simone Leigh on the High Line 30th Street & 10th Ave in Manhattan

Bottom right: Adorn Me by Tanda Francis in Fort Green Park, Brooklyn

Me… all over NYC over the last few months… showing love, support and respect to a few INCREDIBLE women of color artists. I still have to make it to the Met to see Wangechi Mutu’s The NewOnes, will free Us before January 12, 2020. Are there any exhibits or installations that you’re looking forward to seeing? Let me know in the comments.

**Borrowed from one of my favorite excerpts from Sula by Toni Morrison:
“In a way, her strangeness, her naiveté, her craving for the other half of her equation was the consequence of an idle imagination. Had she paints, or clay, or knew the discipline of the dance, or strings, had she anything to engage her tremendous curiosity and her gift for metaphor, she might have exchanged the restlessness and preoccupation with whim for an activity that provided her with all she yearned for. And like an artist with no art form, she became dangerous.”

Wake Up In Glory / I Am You: Part I

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Works by Elizabeth Catlett

Works by Elizabeth Catlett

Self-Portrait by Gordon Parks

Self-Portrait by Gordon Parks

I had a chance to see Elizabeth Catlett's Wake Up In Glory and Gordon Parks' I Am You: Part I  in The Burning in Water and Jack Shainman Gallery respectively. Many years ago, I was supposed to see a Ms. Catlett speak but the talk was canceled. It was exciting to see her work all these years later and it feeling so strong and still so relevant. Powerful sculptures of women with subtleties that also express softness. I followed that exhibit with Gordon Parks' work which anyone who knows his work knows it is bold, raw, empowering and often sobering because he captured life in it's most honest form. His early works were mixed with his painterly fashion photography that he did for Vogue. I had an art school professor who adored both of their works. This visit was like a refresher course. There are so many incredible creative people and ventures that I look forward to blogging about but visiting these classics invigorated me.