October 2024 Newsletter

15TH BIENNIAL de la HABANA

“Shared Horizons”

Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Center - CUBA

November 15, 2024 - February 28, 2025

My Glyphs on the Pages of a 1957 Encyclopedia has been accepted into the 15th Havana Biennale. This marks my first exhibition outside the U.S. I am supported by my friend, artist, and mentor to all, Ben Jones, who introduced my work to the organizers. Glyphs on the Pages of a 1957 Encyclopedia invites visitors to explore themes of diversity and solidarity under this year's theme, Horizontes Compartidos. The Biennale runs from November 15, 2024, to February 28, 2025.

BADG AT THE COOPER HEWITT - SMITHSONIAN DESIGN MUSEUM

New York, NY

NOVEMBER 2, 2024 To AUGUST 20, 2025

My vitrine assemblage, “AFRICANA/AMERICANA, 2024,” is featured, along with fellow BADG members, in the current Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum’s Library in New York City. This exhibition explores how design shapes the physical and emotional realities of home across the U.S., its territories, and Tribal Nations. Featuring 25 site-specific installations, this year’s Triennial delves into the many ways in which homes are built, reimagined, and experienced. The full exhibit is installed throughout the historic Andrew and Louise Carnegie Mansion.

My contribution in the Library engages with the exhibition’s themes, particularly reflecting on how home spaces shape and have shaped my cultural narratives and individual experiences. As a bookworm, who paid part of my college costs working in the school library, and whose first job out of college was working in the city library, books have exerted a huge influence, opening doors to both ancient and contemporary worlds that I could never have inhabited physically. I've prominently showcased my first edition copy of The 1619 Project by Ms. Nikole Hannah-Jones (a book that blew open my mind sharing our hidden histories in this country).  Also there are other books that have educated me and/or inspired my visions, along with some that feature my designs. Filled with other objects significant to my life, they serve as inspirations or elements for my furniture designs.

 This institution has been supportive of my art for decades beginning with a commission by then Chief Design Curator, David McFadden of my Tudor Tables that have been featured in three exhibits to date  I am delighted to be included in this extraordinary project with my wonderful cohorts, the Creative members of BADG (Black Artists & Designers Guild).

MARTIN HOUSE RESIDENCY

Buffalo, NY

September 21- October 20, 2024

My month-long residency at the historic Martin House in Buffalo, NY, has ended, and I expect to have many outcomes to share with you in future newsletters. Designed by the iconic architect Frank Lloyd Wright, this vast compound is a testament to the genius and specificity of Wright’s vision for every detail. This residency offered an unparalleled opportunity to live and create within one of Wright’s most delightful spaces on the property—the Gardener’s Cottage.

My outreach project with the Buffalo Commons Charter School’s 2nd graders was a huge hit with the staff, the school's board, and the parents of these naturally creative children. I wanted to introduce them to professions they may be unaware of, but that might fit their talents and temperament perfectly. Below, they are learning what an Archivist does and, afterward, they created artworks inspired by this knowledge through customized projects designed by the Education Programs Manager, Zhenya Doolan. Their works, created during two-day sessions each week of my residency, were then displayed in a closing art exhibit attended by their families in the compound’s Visitor Center.

In addition, I began the creation of a new suite of Sculptures in the Form of a Necklace using fidget toys I discovered in the Gift Shop. I paired them with some of the extraordinary beads gifted to me by New York’s Kates-Ferri Projects' Gallerist, Natalie Kates. The manager of the gift shop, Tracy Fischer, introduced me to Dan Abramson, the owner of morf company, who manufactures the fidget toys. Eight of the newly introduced smaller-sized fidgets arrived the day I returned home, and I look forward to sharing them with you once they have chosen the beads with which they will be paired.

More to come in the next newsletter about furniture design ideas inspired by the stained glass and architectural details of the Martin House and Barton House.

DEEP SPACE GALLERY “WALLPAPER”

JERSEY CITY, NJ
October 12, 2024 - October 12, 2024

Though the Deep Space Gallery exhibit Wallpaper has ended, some of my Glyphs in different compositions, along with those on the pages of a 1957 Encyclopedia, are still available. This has to be the coolest gallery in New Jersey, and I’m so proud to be included in their wonderful shows.

Use the link below to purchase different Glyphs, as well as those on the encyclopedia pages (all framed) in various iterations on pages 3,4, 6, and 7 of the Artsy website.

“LIBERATORY LIVING: PROTECTIVE INTERIORS & RADICAL BLACK JOY”

MUSEUM OF THE AFRICAN DIASPORA (MOAD), SAN FRANCISCO

Curated by Key Jo Lee
October 2, 2024 - March 2, 2025

Key Jo Lee, Chief of Curatorial Affairs & Public Programs at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MOAD), secured my Copper Pennies Media Cabinet, 1997, from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's (SFMOMA) permanent collection to exhibit alongside my Constellation Bed. This table was generously gifted to SFMOMA by Marsha Garces Williams, producer and wife of the late Robin Williams. This piece was a collaboration between me and one of my best and most talented friends of decades, Randy Comer. We scavenged pennies for months, selecting those minted before 1982, before they changed primarily to zinc with copper plating. Randy owned a contraption capable of rolling these pure copper pennies into ovals. My cabinetmaker, Pamela Pastrana, attached them without looking while taking them from the container, so their patinated finishes formed a truly random fish-scale pattern. The table has casters in its brass legs, and holes in the top allow heat from what was then state-of-the-art AV equipment to vent. Over its shoulder is another pairing of my work (as we are in the Brooklyn Museum) with my fellow BADG member Sheila Bridges’ beautiful Harlem Toile wallpaper.

SCULPTURES IN THE FORM OF A NECKLACE

2 Columbus Circle, NYC

April 18, 2024 - April 12, 2026 

Don’t forget to visit the OUT of the Jewelry Box exhibit at the MAD (Museum of Arts and Design) at 2 Columbus Circle in NYC. Curated by Barbara Paris Gifford, the exhibit features the remarkable Porter Price Collection, which celebrates queer perspectives in contemporary art jewelry along with pieces that narrate diverse queer histories. Pictured are two of my three Sculptures in the Form of a Necklace acquired for the permanent collection.

Don’t miss a delightful bonus feature in this gallery. Push the drawers below the cases along the walls to reveal more of the Museum’s extensive permanent collection. For more information, click the link below.

AND—don’t miss the Barbie: A Cultural Icon exhibit before it ends on March 16, 2025. This exhibit explores Barbie’s history and impact on fashion and popular culture.

CHERYL’S ARTIST PICK OF THE MONTH

MARISOL ESCOBAR

From the wall text: 

Marisol often references the social life of the 1960s in her sculptures and does so here by using herself as the subject. Her work, often accompanied by her picture, regularly graced the pages of Glamour, Harper's Bazaar, and Vogue in the mid-1960s, and she briefly became known as the quintessential party girl of Manhattan's downtown social scene. One reviewer referred to her "celebratable face." For this sculptural group, Marisol conceived "a very elegant ball" with fifteen distinct attendees. Each figure has the artist's face and wears clothing connoting their social identities and status, including seemingly wealthy party guests in gowns as well as a maid and butler in uniform. The exhibition debuting The Party was widely praised, and many critics recognized for the first time the somber quality and alienation expressed in Marisol's work.