Parsons MFA Thesis Exhibit

Please join us!!!

Parsons MFA Thesis Exhibit curated by Margaret Clinton
Thursday, May 13, 2010
6:00pm - 8:00pm
@ The Kitchen 512 West 19th Street bet. 10 and 11th Ave. NYC

featuring my new painting "Not No Way, Not No How"

New Exhibit!!!

Personal Narratives: Diaspora

Opening Reception - Saturday, February 13th, 4-6 pm

Closing Discussions - Sunday, March 7th, 2-4 pm

Five Black artists are featured in Personal Narratives: Diaspora, an exhibition honoring Black History Month, opening Thursday, February 11th, and running through, Sunday, March 7th, at Clover’s Fine Art Gallery, 338 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn.

The artists, through their work, share their personal narratives of identity, race and history. They are:

Alexandria Smith is an MFA candidate at Parsons School of Design and an art educator in Harlem. Her drawings and paintings depict the continued story telling of the same character. She says “Chronicling the experience of being an African-American middle-class girl in present day society is the point of focus of my artwork. The desire and longing to belong is echoed in the portraits of these young preadolescent girls.” At Clover’s Fine Art Gallery, Smith is exhibiting a series of her small drawings that describe the journey of her character. The young girl is shown in a story book format as she searches for identity. The paintings, oil on wood panel, have a brighter color palette, and show the child engaged with classic American childhood experiences.

Johnnie Bess, a graduate of Howard University, is an artist, educator, and youth mentor for teens in Washington, D.C. His portraits are of friends in their natural urban environments. “I am attempting to create a body of images,” Bess says, “that is reflective of those marginal and subtle nuances of daily life especially in the lives of indigenous peoples and African descendants throughout the Diaspora. I hope for these images to reflect the dynamic nature of the lives of people who all too often in the visual arena are reduced to stereotypes and caricatures of themselves.” Playin Ya’self captures a young adolescent boy acting like tough guy with a cap gun. The adolescent is simultaneously threatening and innocent. The imagined background of the cityscape shows an abandoned lot and a one way sign. The painting captures a youth’s reaction to the social and media influences encompassing his upbringing.

Noel Copeland is a painter, sculptor, and draftsman, reminiscent of a Jamaican Picasso. He is the founder of Monoco designs, an acronym for More Noel Copeland. His hand-crafted pottery combines traditional Japanese design with Jamaican characters and colors. He has installed public sculpture for the MTA at the East Broadway subway stop, and has shown internationally. In Personal Narratives: Diaspora, Copeland is showing pieces he has not shared before. The Gunman is a portrait of the artist’s brother who was gunned down at age 26 in gang violence in the 1980’s. Crack Head is a plaster portrait head penetrated with crack vials, similar in shape to a desperate face from Picasso’s Guernica. His limited color palette drawings are collages of memory and narrative. They are intimate reflections of the subconscious, reflecting the inner Noel Copeland.

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh is originally from Oklahoma City. “My work,” she explains, “is inspired by the distress and injustices that people around the world continue to experience. It's inspired by the beam of a child's innocent smile. It's inspired by the solemn look in a heartbroken woman's eyes. I'm an oil painter focusing on figures and portraits - portraits of people that have affected my life and the world that I live in.” Fazlalizadeh has been published in numerous magazines including The Source and Beyond Race - and has shown in a number of art galleries along the east coast including the historic inauguration exhibit, Manifest Hope:DC, in January 2009.

Francis Simeni was born in Lagos, Nigeria and was raised in Poland and then New York City. Having studied Illustration and Toy Design at FIT; Simeni works in oil, acrylic, watercolor and ink. He uses a limited palette on wood panels. His imagery comes from a collection of historic and personal sources. Sovereignty, an acrylic and oil on wood panel, depicts the story of King Leopold II of Belgium, who ran the Congo under a brutal regime. It became one of the most infamous international scandals at the turn of the 20th century.

CURRENT EXHIBITION
The Gentrification of Brooklyn: The Pink Elephant Speaks
February 4, 2010 - May 16, 2010

This exhibition, guest curated by Dexter Wimberly, will examine how urban planning, imminent domain, and real estate development are affecting Brooklyn's communities and how residents throughout the borough are responding. The exhibition will include the works of several Brooklyn-based artists, as well as those who have been forced to relocate as a result of gentrification. In addition to works of art featured at MoCADA, there will be a schedule of public programs taking place throughout Brooklyn, check MoCADA's website for more info.

Featured Artists
Josh Bricker (Installation), Oasa DuVerney (Illustration / Mixed-media), Zachary Fabri (Video), Irondale Ensemble (Theater Performance), Nathan Kensinger (Photography), Jess Levey (Photography / Outdoor Projections), Christina Massey (Painting), Musa (Sculpture), Tim Okamura (Painting), Kip Omalade (Painting), John Perry (Illustration), Michael Premo / Rachel Falcone (Photography / Multimedia), Adele Pham (Video), Marie Roberts (Painting), Gabriel Reese (Painting), Ali Santana (Music Video), Monique Schubert (Mixed-media), Alexandria Smith (Painting) and Sarah Nelson Wright (Installation)

Public Programs
Opening "Set it Off" Reception
Thursday, February 4, 2010
6:00pm - 9:00pm Free to the public
MoCADA (80 Hanson Place, Brooklyn, NY) mocada.org

Postcards From the Edge Benefit

Postcards From the Edge is a Visual AIDS benefit show and sale of original, postcard-sized works on paper by established and emerging artists. All works are sold on a first-come, first-served basis. The works are signed on the back and exhibited so the artists' signatures cannot be seen. While buyers receive a list of all participating artists, they don't know who created which piece until purchased. All proceeds support the work of Visual AIDS.

Hope you can make it, I've donated a drawing to the event!

January 8-10, 2010 Hosted by ZieherSmith 516 West 20th Street (btw 10th & 11th Avenues), NYC

Benefit Sale:

Saturday, January 9, 2010 from 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM

Sunday, January 10, 2010 from 12:00 noon - 4:00 PM

First-come, first-served, with a suggested admission of $5 each day. Over 1600 original postcard-size works of art. $75 EACH. Buy four and get a fifth as our Thank You.

Proceeds benefit programs of Visual AIDS.

Forms of payment accepted are cash, check, MC/VISA/AMEX.

Preview Party: Friday, January 8, 2010 from 6:00 - 8:00 PM $75 admission, payable at the door, includes a raffle ticket for the chance to win 1st choice of any postcard. Additional raffle tickets available at the door. Participating artists attend free. A silent auction of original work by Jack Pierson, Marcus Linnenbrink and Aaron Cobbett will also be available during the Preview Party. Plus, the auction will include the choice of any postcard to the highest bidder! Click here for more details. No other artwork will be sold until the Benefit Sale on Saturday, Jan. 9 & Sunday, Jan. 10, 2010.