Thursday, September 10, 2015 at 5:00AM Kenturah Davis was selected by Senator Holly J. Mitchell with the help of curator (and now director of PAMM) Franklin Sirmans to exhibit in the California State Senate Contemporary Art Collection 2015-2016. Her drawing 'Mediatation VIII: Karim' from the Narratives and Meditations series is on view now.
Friday, May 8, 2015 at 5:00AM Kenturah has the entire Narratives I-IV series included and on view now in a group exhibition taking place during the Venice Biennale.
We Must Risk Delight: Twenty Artists from Los Angeles
@ la Biennale di Venezia, Biennale Arte 2015
Exhibition Dates: May 9 - November 22, 2015
Magazzino del Sale No.3, Dorsoduro 264, Venezia, Italy
Presented in collaboration with Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia
We Must Risk Delight: Twenty Artists from Los Angeles is an exhibition that presents, for the first time on the international stage, a group of exceptional contemporary Los Angeles artists whose work makes Los Angeles one of the most exciting hubs of creativity in the world today.
We Must Risk Delight is inspired by the poem A Brief for the Defense by a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry finalist, Jack Gilbert. In his viscerally visual poem, Gilbert calls on humanity to recognize every moment of delight even in the most ominous of impressions. By slicing through the somber depictions of the world we live in with sharp and vibrant moments of joy, the poet presents an irrefutable case for our happiness as being our most requisite expression of freedom, not in spite of the cruelty that is a part of our world, but because of it.
A work of art represents the artist’s vision of the world and, when embraced, it can be seen as a way of making a world. The artists presented in We Must Risk Delight will give the audiences of the Biennale Arte 2015 an opportunity to discover the city of Los Angeles through the kaleidoscope of its creative community, while also encouraging us all to risk delight and celebrate the act of creating as humanity’s pathway to joy: both within ourselves and in the collective world around us.
We Must Risk Delight: Twenty Artists from Los Angeles is being presented as an official Collateral Event of the 56th manifestation of la Biennale di Venezia, Biennale Arte 2015.
Presented Artists:
Brandy Eve Allen Tanya Batura Jamison Carter Carolyn Castaño
Robbie Conal Kenturah Davis Amir H. Fallah Alexandra Grant
Margaret Griffith Sherin Guirguis Ben Jackel Mark Licari
Rebecca Niederlander Stas Orlovski Natasa Prosenc Stearns Tony de los Reyes
Frank Ryan Shizu Saldamando Carole Silverstein Alexis Zoto
Tuesday, April 21, 2015 at 5:00AM Sadie Barnette is from Oakland, California. She received her BFA from CalArts in 2006, and her Masters in Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego, in 2012. Sadie is currently living in New York City while participating in the 2014-15 Artist-in-Residence program at the Studio Museum in Harlem.
"Untitled" spray paint and ink on paper, 2015
Monday, December 8, 2014 at 5:00AM You can see a drawing installation art work by Kenturah Davis at The Mine Factory now until December 21st in Pittsburgh, PA. She is included in the I JUST WANT THE PAPER group exhibition.
Wednesday, November 5, 2014 at 5:00AM Lakwena did a mural in Las Vegas last month during the Life is Beautiful festival. The "EVER AFTER" mural is a continuation of her "I REMEMBER PARADISE" series we will be debuting in January 2015!
Tuesday, November 4, 2014 at 5:00AM Kenturah has an installation in the Yokohama Trienniale in Tokyo, Japan.
"This piece is on view at Midtokyo Gallery's Draft Punk show, in the Yokohama Triennale in Japan. The theme for this year's exhibition is Fahrenheit 451, referencing Bradbury's 1953 novel centered around book burning. I have been thinking about memory and the idea transferring knowledge from one form to another. I found a way to respond to the theme of the show through the meaning behind my name......
"Kenturah" is derived from a Hebrew word for incense, which is a metaphor for prayer. The idea is that converting an aromatic material into smoke allows it to dissipate and enter another dimension where God resides: "So is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." This scripture makes a lyrical assertion about language and represents the greatest potential of our use of words. It is also the text I used for this first drawing in the “Namesake” series. It is a self-portrait made by writing this text on shavings of palo santo (“holy wood”), a type of tree bark from South America that is traditionally used as ritual incense. I burned them, converting the inscribed wood into plumes of smoke. A residue of soot was left behind, to which I added liquid, turning it into black ink. I applied the ink to rice paper using rubber stamp letters. In essence, this drawing is a byproduct of burned, dissipated, text. It represents the idea that our current state of being is a result of words that have been released into the atmosphere. Of note, the drawing is derived from a photo that I distorted and was drawn on thin rice paper to create an ethereal quality to the piece."
Monday, September 15, 2014 at 5:00AM This month you can view one of Kenturah's installation hand written drawings in China at the Ucity Art Museum in Guangzhou. The group exhibition An American Water Margin is on view now until October 10.
"Language Games" pencil on paper
Thursday, September 11, 2014 at 5:00AM Kenturah has a great interview on OFF RAMP with John Rabe. Click the photo to read/listen!
Tuesday, August 26, 2014 at 5:00AM Kenturah's next solo exhibit opens this upcoming Saturday August 30th at 6pm...looking forward to seeing you all there!
Thursday, July 3, 2014 at 5:00AM Kenturah is featured in the latest issue of art magazine FABRIK as one of eight emerging artist in LA to watch!
Monday, May 12, 2014 at 5:00AM I was asked to be a guest curator at this year's THE HAPPENING, LACE's annual benefit gala. Bid on the works now! And visit welcometolace.org to purchase tickets to the live auction!
Andy Robert, 2014 drawing on canvas, Som'em Special
Henry Taylor, oil on canvas, 2012, Dania Sofia is this you: Feeling brown is not blue
Kenturah Davis, ink on paper, 2011, DIFFERENT
Sunday, May 4, 2014 at 5:00AM Kenturah Davis was commissioned to do her first public art project. Watch her awesome time lapse of making the hand written mural drawings.
Commissioned by Alliance Francaise d'Accra, 2014.
Drawn by writing this Audre Lorde quote in repetition:
"I AM DELIBERATE AND AFRAID OF NOTHING."
Background:
I arrived in Ghana November, 2013. I found myself listening to a lot of Nina Simone, so when the opportunity came to propose a mural for International Women's Day, I immediately thought of Simone's "Four Women." The emotion of this song intensified my experiences as I traveled throughout the country, visiting the slave castles in and grappling with the history of the African diaspora. The theme Alliance Francaise selected for the mural, "Women of the World", encouraged me to consider subjects of today. Using Simone's song as a point of departure, I identified four African women who live in Accra and were doing interesting work that contributes to the community. It was important that they not be "famous"; rather, i tried to find a balance between anonymity and admirability.Ultimately, I wanted to create a work of art that portrayed accomplished women with very different personal stories and are tied to the strength and resiliency that Nina Simone conveys in her lyrical narratives. They are symbols of the many more amazing women I've encountered in Ghana.
Integral to the process of making the drawing, I had to also identify a text that I would use to render the four women. I finally selected one suggested by a friend; a quote by feminist, Audre Lorde: "I AM DELIBERATE AND AFRAID OF NOTHING." This simple, yet potent phrase served the dual purpose of declaring their sense of purpose and functioning as a meditation by which i could absorb its meaning for my own benefit. The process of writing a text in repetition to compose the portrait was a metaphor for the way that we acquire and inhabit language. It extended the work into the realm of a performative act, in which the process of making it is as important as the finished piece.Understanding that the advent of the written word arrived as the capacity of human memory deteriorated situates the portraits as a kind of documentation that might extend the reach of collective memory and historical consciousness.
Acknowledgements:
Alliance Francaise d'Accra
Osei-Duro
Shawanna Davis
Bright Kpoha
Keni and Mildred Davis
Papillion Art
Four Women:
Lila Macqueen Djaba
Akosua Adoma Owusu
Nana Oforiatta Ayim
Martina Odonkor
Friday, November 22, 2013 at 5:00AM Andy Robert:
2010 drawing of a farmer in Rwanda“Conceptually, I’m interested in narrative structures, chance, and notions of gaming as system; particularly for the ability to influence, alter, and frame perceptions --ways of viewing, experiencing and engaging with art and the world. Drawing from the Constructivists’ notion of gestalt --to alter and shift the perception of space through the use of everyday materials in art, and postmodern sensibilities; my practice, multi-disciplinary and predominately research based, incorporating both text and image, and invested in arts’ critical capacity. Acknowledging the body as a point, not alone or at center but social --of many points orbiting, pushing and pulling, conversing and relaying, I seek to question our boundaries, our space/time and our humanity as either a common, mutable and/or a fabrication.
And in working in the assemblage tradition and critically with archives, its’ interesting what happens to things when they come in to proximity and/or collide.”
http://andyrobert.com
The Bindery Projects: “4 Fragments," Minneapolis, Minnesota
Wednesday, November 20, 2013 at 5:00AM Andrea's artist statement:
My work examines cultures created under the influence of colonial and post-colonial regimes and their relationship to The Land. I mine foodstuffs, recipes and archival materials such as photographs and tourist publications, in order to reconstruct and create a new series of narratives, which I juxtapose against the stories told by the colony to sell romantic notions about nature and labor.
Through sculpture and painting I use food items and recipes to explore migration patterns, both voluntary and involuntary, and how cultures have been created through the influence of multiple mother cultures and the conditions of The Land. By manipulating photographs and tourism imagery, I investigate how The Land has been sold through picturesque fantasy and fantastic copy.
I ask the viewer to question the “real,” the seen and unseen in order to navigate these conflicting narratives.
http://andreachungart.com
Bato Disik, 2012 made of sugar
Sink & Swim, 2013 made of sugar and wire
From "Thongs: experience the luxury included" series 2010
Come back to Jamaica, video animation 2009
Monday, November 18, 2013 at 5:00AM Derek Fordjour is a first generation Ghanian American who grew up in Memphis. He now lives and works in Harlem and is creating some very interesting works.
Artist Bio:
Derek Fordjour is an artist working in variety of media, primarily drawing, painting and printmaking. He studied at Pratt Institute and the Art Student’s League in New York City. He is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta Georgia, earned a Master’s Degree in Art Education from Harvard University and is currently pursuing an MFA in painting at Hunter College. His work is in several collections throughout the US.
http://derekfordjour.com/
Monday, September 9, 2013 at 5:00AM Tatyana Fazlalizadeh is an artist we have worked with in the past and have featured many times on ARTE: Her project Stop Telling Women To Smile is kick starting! Check it out and pledge to get some really rad things :-)
Wednesday, September 4, 2013 at 5:00AM Had the pleasure of checking out the Roy Lichtenstein retrospect at Centre Pompidou in Paris. This video from My Art Agenda sums up the exhibition experience perfectly!
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 5:00AM Letters are hand-painted on A4 sized acid-free 200gsm paper.
