All exhibitions are FREE and open to the public Tuesday - Saturday 12 Noon - 5 p.m.
The Black Woman is God
(Sargent Johnson Gallery, 1st Floor)
Thu, Feb 28
-- Thu, May 30
Closing Reception: May, 30, 2013 | Time 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.
The Black woman’s contribution in the society has been devalued. She has been viewed as second-class citizen, relegated to the dresser draws of history. However, she has shaped and changed the world in social and political spheres. These influences of change are reflected in the art world, however, dominated by white male patriarchy. This exhibition will challenge the limited artistic space deemed appropriated for black women to occupy and question when black women create are they God. It is explosive because the images of God have on the most part been white and male until recent.
The intention is that artists from Southern and Northern California, established and emerging, will address this statement as a question and respond to it in their work. The importance of having Southern and Northern California artists is to engage a dialogue across geographical locations and see to what extent these geographies shape meaning.
"The most disastrous aspect of colonisation which you are the most reluctant to release from your mind is their colonisation of the image of God." - Dr. Frances Cress-Welsing
The Elders Project: A tribute to African-Americans ages 90 to 104 years old.
(Hall of Culture, 3rd Floor)
Thu, Mar 14
-- Thu, Aug 8
Artist Talk: May 16, 2013 | Time: 2 p.m.
The Elders Project: 2013 features artists Marie Johnson Calloway and Armand Wright in two exhibitions that celebrate their creativity,
and the strength, perseverance, and beauty of older African Americans.
Marie Calloway’s paintings and constructions are portraits of African-American life and culture. Her cut-out figures are two-dimensional sculptures that represent historical and everyday heroes of family and city life. She paints and dresses the figures and places them in installations that vibrate with the life and culture of African Americans. She creates small assemblages that are altar-like, narrative pearls of wisdom. Her more conventional paintings include portraits and landscapes. Some of the paintings are colorful abstract references
to landscape imagery.
Armand Wright’s black and white photographs capture the strength, vitality, and life force of older African American men and women.
His portraits are beautiful depictions of triumphant and enduring lives. They are visual testimonies of that old adage that “Black don’t crack.” These portraits are all the more amazing because the subjects are all nonagenerians and centenarians. In other words, they are of people who are 90 to 100 years and older!
The project also features a video projection of interviews with select elders and an installation of a short film called “Nobody Else” by Bay Area based filmmaker, Taura Musgrove. Her film is about a ninety-two year old African American woman, Mrs. Orbie Lyons, who successfully writes, performs, produces, and distributes her original gospel song, “Nobody Else”, on CD. The film has also been selected for the Annapolis Film Festival in the spring of 2013.
