Sugar In Our Blood: The Spirit of Black and Queer Identity in the Art of Ramekon O'Arwisters
(Sargent Johnson Gallery, 1st Floor)
Thu, Jun 13
-- Sun, Sep 1
Opening Reception: June 13, 2013 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Ramekon O’Arwisters’ exhibition, Sugar In Our Blood, is an autobiographical approach to explore society’s sexual stereotyping of the LGBTIQA and African-American communities. O’Arwisters work addresses how the political and economic systems within the United States negates the spirituality of these communities at the expense of their spirituality. Sugar In Our Blood is a collection of mixed-media installations that incorporate a collaborative, community-based art project, which uses the folk-art tradition of rag-rug making to reference domesticity, sexuality, and spirituality. Large rag-rug tapestries made from intimate apparel, nightgowns, and shirts are assembled together with church hats, family photographs, aprons, and other cultural icons. These large community-based sculptures, derived from the histories of gender, sexual, and racial politics, are an aptly appraisal of the prevailing national anxiety.
Ramekon O’Arwisters lives and works in San Francisco, California and was a recipient of a 2002 Artadia Award. He has exhibited at the Luggage Store, San Francisco, California and Kato Gallery, Tokyo, Japan. His numerous group exhibitions include Past Forward: African Spirituality in Contemporary Black Art at the African American Art & Cultural Complex (AAACC), San Francisco, California and Decoding Identity: I Do It For My People, Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), San Francisco, California. O’Arwisters was honored with his second San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant in 2011. He has been actively involved in residences and guest lectures at Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Vermont Studio Center, Sonoma State University, and he was the April 2012 artist-in-residence at the de Young Museum.
Uncle Junior Project
(Sargent Johnson Gallery, 1st Floor)
Sun, Sep 1
-- Wed, Jan 1
The Uncle Junior Project is an exhibition that lends an opportunity to honor and celebrate the achievements of the many extraordinary individuals and groups in the African American circus community. Using costumes and archival film and still images, the exhibition will profile five to seven performers of African descent: Emanuel “Junior” Ruffin, Satin, Tyrone Taylor, Bernice Collins, King Charles Unicyle Troupe, Vanessa Thomas Smith, and Jonathan Lee Iverson; and the UniverSoul Circus – the only African American owned circus in America. The highlighted themes of the exhibition are: Beginnings, Inspiration, Narrative, and Experience.
