January 5th - 26th, 2018

The Strand Center for the Arts is thrilled to host a Contemporary African-American Artists Exhibition in the Main Gallery in January, 2018. Titled, “Sweet Music Never Heard until Diversity Plays Catch-up: Contemporary African-American Thought,” this exhibit featured artwork of five African-American Artists:  Otto Neals, Dr. Myrah Brown Green, Eric Pryor, Al Johnson and Sadikisha Saundra Collier and is curated by Donna Mason.

 The artists brought together for this show had a wonderful diversity of styles with an equally diverse assortment of media and approaches to creating art. For instance, Otto Neals, and those of his generation, who saw it as their role to create images to wipe out stereotypical fodder that were the precursor of “Black is Beautiful.” His 1972 Viscosity Etching, “Uhuru,” the Swahili word for freedom, its imagery harks historically both backwards and forwards.

 Another artist, Dr. Myrah Brown Green, revives African-American tradition of making something out of nothing through her use of the fiber art of quilting. The tradition of squaring away scraps of things, the leavings to create monumentality. In her work, “Night in Tunisia,” she weaved her own personal history into the quilt, using a photo transfer image of her childhood self as a basis.

 Yet another artist, Eric Pryor, continued the tradition of weaving rhythm, texture music and history within the layered iconography of his oeuvre. His tactile work, “Talking Drum #2,” made use of etched markings charged with electricity, which evokes the call and response tradition of African culture wherein the drums sweet rhythm must elicit a dance response.

 Speaking in code, Sadikisha Collier referenced the two Americas W.E.B. Dubois spoke of in The Souls of Black Folk in her mixed media painting, “The Pledge,” where allegiances are pledged to the Black National Anthem, the song, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” and the American Flag is washed in the colors of Black Liberation.

 Finally, there is Al Johnson, an artist who took a modernist bend in his use abstract expressionism cutting a wide swath communicating through colors and shapes.  One can feel his sweeping gestures, his dance before the canvas as he completes his application of paint with his trowel.