Category: Uncategorized
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Artist a Day Challenge 2016-8: Brenna Youngblood
Moody Mondays beg for a beautifully moody piece. Brenna Youngblood’s work combines expressionist and textural techniques with her formal background in photography. She takes found pieces of everyday objects like discarded paper bags, tree shaped car fresheners and photographs and applies them to canvas. Her paintings embody that point of collision between color field painting and abstraction. Youngblood’s 2015 Project 50 Series explored…
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Artist a Day Challenge 2016-7: Thornton Dial
Thornton Dial, “Stars of Everything”, 2004. Photo credit: Souls Grown Deep Today I’m highlighting an artist I wrote about for my second site TONDI. TONDI hosts digital exhibitions and explores broader social themes relating to contemporary art, music and design. I recently wrote a piece about Thornton Dial that was a commentary on how arts writers categorized him as an artist, but for…
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Artist a Day Challenge 2016-6: Yashua Klos
In his current exhibition, “How to Hide in the Wind”, Yashua Klos uses collage and printmaking to transform abstracted pieces of printed paper into figurative profiles. His subjects take on a three dimensional quality as they physically emerge through wood blocks revealing one external image while concealing fragments of themselves left behind. This visual representation of code switching demonstrates…
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Artist a Day Challenge 2016-5: Emory Douglas on Creating a Culture of Resistance
The graphics were bold, the symbolism was strong and the messages were provocative. Emory Douglas’ graphic design work became the visual voice of movement dedicated to the fight for civil rights and social justice. As the “Minister of Culture” for the Black Panther Party, Emory Douglas used punchy printmaking to tell captivatingly strong stories that depicted the…
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Artist a Day Challenge 2016-4: James Van Der Zee
James Van Der Zee was a prolific photographer documenting Harlem in the 1920’s and 1930’s with work that earned him the unofficial title of “Photographer of the Harlem Renaissance.” With a mission to highlight middle class life, his work featured portraits of black New Yorkers, showing a side of life that was virtually invisible outside the African American community. He was very…
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Artist a Day Challenge 2016-3: Njideka Akunyili Crosby
“Ask the ‘Why’, it’s not enough to say ‘it’s beautiful.’ “~Njideka Akunyili Crosby “Beautiful” is exactly how I described Crosby’s show at the Hammer in November. There are so many layers to her work it’s hard to focus on one aspect of it. I now realize that in many ways that is the point. On the surface…
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Artist a Day Challenge 2016-2: Alma Thomas
The “Artist a Day Challenge” celebrates Black History Month by highlighting Black artists and diverse forms of cultural expression across the African diaspora.
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Artist a Day Challenge 2016-1: Frederic Douglass & the Power of Photography
In 2015 I embarked on a journey to highlight artists of color during Black History Month and I am happy to bring this important feature back to Culture Shock Art. Instead of the longer theoretical essays, I currently explore on TONDI, this February I will explore one artist, artistic medium or art movement each day during February. Both 2015…
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On Sabbatical: Notes from the Rabbit Hole
The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice. `Who are YOU?’ said the Caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, `I–I hardly know, sir,…
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Artist a Day Challenge No. 7: Kenturah Davis
“I AM DELIBERATE AND AFRAID OF NOTHING.”~ AUDRE LORDE “I’M A REBEL WITH A CAUSE”~NINA SIMONE The first time I heard “Four Women” by Nina Simone I got chills. To me, there are three important elements to storytelling in any form of artistic expression: 1. It immediately conveys and connects to raw emotion 2. It provides a subtle…
Colony Little, Culture Shock Art 