KIngston Gallery Juried Show

Whisting in the Dark

By: KIngston - Aug 05, 2021

 

 

 

Jaypix Belmer

Madge Evers

Mia Fabrizio

Percy Fortini-Wright

Carol Greenwood

John Greiner-Ferris

Willoughby Lucas Hastings

Michelle Maroon

Jameel Radcliffe

Eileen Taylor

Chloe Tomasetta

Whistling in the Dark
Kingston Gallery,
450 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA
Opening August 6, 5 to 8 PM

Kingston Gallery members Jeesoo Lee and Jamal Thorne, with guest juror Lavaughan Jenkins, read James Baldwin’s interview with Studs Terkel. Then, with the interview fresh in their minds, the jurors focused on what it means to be disruptive and all the stories that people have to tell.

Acknowledging the institutional tradition of minimizing some stories while amplifying others, Lee, Thorne, and Jenkins chose to take this opportunity to amplify voices that have been minimized. Difficult conversations are unfolding. Challenges are addressed under a critical scope. And above all, there is a need for optimism.

Whistling in the Dark presents opportunities for unexpected convergences between the artists and the works they are sharing. Eileen Taylor and Jameel Radcliffe, though from very different worlds of Boston, use painting and drawing to incorporate their emotions into art. In a similar vein, Michelle Maroon sculpts her memories and often imparts elements of wry humor. 

For some artists, the relationship with people and their environments drives them to create. John Grenier-Ferris’s graphic words in French mimic graffiti and challenge the viewer to wake up. Jaypix Belmer immortalizes Hip Hop culture in iconic portraits. Chloe Tomasetta photographs immigrant markets and shopping scenes to celebrate the democratizing quality of food. 

Social and environmental justice themes also prevail. Madge Evers and Willoughby Lucas Hastings explore the colonial past of slavery and white supremacy as well as extinction and the climate crisis in images of threatened lands and John James Audubon’s birds.

The interior, whether that be figurative or literal, is yet another theme. Carol Greenwood’s drawings in black and white and Percy Fortini-Wright’s Nocturnes delve into the personal mindscapes through abstraction or readily identifiable landscapes, while Mia Fabrizio physically constructs/deconstructs elements of the domestic interior.

Images: Michelle Maroon, Jaypix Belmer, Carol Greenwood