art exhibition – Memphis Flyer

In the wake of the killing of George Floyd, the general public was flooded with images of Black pain and suffering. From news stations to social media feeds, these images proliferated by modern technology were and are instantaneous with nothing, really, to prevent them from surfacing on our screens.

To counteract this, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) curated the “Black American Portraits” exhibition, filled with portraits celebrating and depicting Black joy, power, and love. And now the exhibit has made its way to the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.

With 129 pieces of art in total, the exhibition spans over 200 years in history, from 19th-century studio photography to paintings completed as recently as this year. The works hang in the “salon style” with the art lining the walls in a way that one might adorn their own walls — a more contemporary piece may be placed beside antique tin types, one artist’s work may hang above that of another. It’s almost domestic in that way, says Patricia Daigle, the Brooks’ curator of modern and contemporary art.

Still, the exhibition is divided into three gallery spaces, with each space focusing on power, love, and joy, respectively. “I think a lot of us think we understand what power looks like or what love feels like,” says Daigle, “but I think one thing you’ll see in this exhibition is that these are really complicated concepts and emotions. And they’re presented through a Black lens.”

“We’re not trying to present an image that’s like a rose-colored-glasses view of the past,” adds Efe Igor Coleman, Blackmon Perry assistant curator of African-American art and art of the African Diaspora at the Brooks. “But it’s important to see that [power, love, and joy] existed and still exists, … [that] people are able to find joy and love and power in periods of incredible difficulty or suffering.”

While some of the images are from historical moments or of recognizable figures, a large portion of the pieces highlights the ordinary: the love of spending time with family, the joy of listening to music, the power in seeing oneself represented. As Coleman says, “For Black folks, owning yourself, owning your own presentation, like literally being able to hang an image of yourself, is really important,” and that’s also part of why the Brooks wanted to bring this exhibition to Memphis, a majority-Black city. One of the questions that the curators ask of every show they generate at the Brooks is, she says, “Why Memphis?”

And thanks to Daigle and Coleman, the exhibition has Memphis connections with works by local artists Jarvis Boyland, Derek Fordjour, Catherine Elizabeth Patton, and the Hooks Brothers. “Memphis has always been joyful,” says Coleman. “So [the exhibition’s] banking on that legacy and showing off that legacy, especially as we’re part of this monumental national tour.”

“Black American Portraits,” Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, on display August 17-January 7.

When Memphis artist Christina Huntington began a weekly series of small, alla prima (wet-on-wet, in one sitting) oil paintings of still life arrangements, she did so as a way to reawaken her dormant art skills. On her website, christinahuntingtonart.com, Huntington states that most of the paintings for this first “real show” were produced in one sitting. The idea, inspired by Carol Marine’s book Daily Painting, is to practice a lot and enjoy it by not getting too invested in getting it right.

But she did get it right and has already sold nearly two dozen pieces framed in black resin or wood frames with glass, cropped to show the raw edges of under-painting, and floated on an off-white mat.

Courtesy Christina Huntington

Christina Huntington’s Seven Radishes

By day, Huntington is a senior information architect at Archer Malmo. She graduated from Rhodes College with degrees in studio art and creative writing but gained her appreciation for art-making from her father who maintained a lifelong art practice. Her mother is a Philippines-born Spaniard and her father is from Mississippi.

“My father is my biggest and first artistic influence,” Huntington says of her late father, who passed away eight years ago. “My mother struggled with English. I often helped her understand during a time when Memphis wasn’t as diverse. This plays into my work as an observer — taking in information and translating.”

Her brushwork in this series depicting fruits and vegetables, flowers, and nostalgic objects balances the illusion of depth and volume while honoring the medium of painting.

“Recent Still Lifes,” Eclectic Eye, 242 S. Cooper, viewable by appointment through the first week of January.