Targeted
2 Minutes Read Time
Artist’s Statement
My work deals with the Black experience in America, often using
“mainstream” white culture as a critical foil to convey meaning. The
three concepts that drive my current practice are irony, activism, and
my notion of Black coolness. I’m apt to pair depictions of grizzled hustlers,
veterans of the street, with images of angelic schoolgirls. Depending
on the work of art, this juxtaposition calls attention to a variety of
socioeconomic issues that face Black America, but more importantly,
it poses black culture as something multidimensional and nuanced. I
advocate for my culture by subverting, to some degree, museum and
gallery presentation standards for art. My unstretched canvases, hung
on grommets, possess the energy of a good tag on a freight train, while
bringing to mind the work of Emory Douglas, Sister Mary Corita Kent,
and vernacular activist imagery associated with the civil rights movement.
My foam-block relief text and irresistible imagery feed into this
sense of activism but also speak to an undeniable sense of coolness. I
refer to this element of my work as Slim Crowism. My work is relatable
in that it contains trendy tropes that are continually appropriated from
Black culture. Those appropriated images provide a means of entry into
my work while other elements of the art acknowledge that they will
not be entirely accepted as mainstream, bringing that appropriation
full circle to irony.
Read more from Issue 17.2.
