VICTOR EKPUK at The Newark Museum

Congratulations to VICTOR EKPUK for his 2 Manuscript series featured on the cover of the Newark Museum’s Winter 2016 Events & Activities Catalog!

Please contact Morton Fine Art for available artwork by VICTOR EKPUK.

KESHA BRUCE’s “Magic Spells and Reminders” opens 2/26 at Morton Fine Art

Magic Spells & Reminders A solo exhibition of new artwork by KESHA BRUCE   Friday, February 26th, 2016 – March 17th, 2016 OPENING DAY RECEPTION   Friday, February 26th from 6pm-8pm The artist will be in attendance. Lexicon, 2016, 48″x36″, mixed media on canvas EXHIBITION LOCATION Morton Fine Art (MFA) 1781 Florida Ave NW (at 18th & U Sts) Washington, DC 20009 HOURS Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 6pm Sunday 12pm-5pm   Made of Spirit and Royal Blood 1, 2016, 48″x36″, mixed media on canvas About Magic Spells & Reminders Magical-Spiritual belief is at the root of every artwork I create.  “Magic Spells & Reminders” began as a series of reoccurring shapes which appeared within my daily drawings.  These shapes soon solidified and grew into a set of symbols that I began to think of as a personal, magical alphabet.  Influenced by the dry heat and jagged, volcanic peaks of the Superstition Mountains, over the last 6 months I have created a spiritual lexicon inspired by endless sunlight and expansive blue sky of my new home in the Sonoran desert. Unlike my past work, these new works aren’t necessarily narrative in nature, rather they are intended to act as catalysts and reminders to bring about change.   The symbols themselves do not have fixed meanings. In fact, individual symbols may have several meanings, determined primarily by their placement within the painting and their juxtaposition to adjacent symbols. Just as many spiritual paths regard “speaking in tongues” as being a private language between a believer and The Divine, I regard the symbols I’ve created as a subconscious, visual vocabulary that represents spiritual concepts and ideas that range from the concrete to the ethereal and intangible.  The paintings I’ve created for “Magic Spells & Reminders” are meant to act as visual reminders of both spiritual and creative intent, tools or reflection and healing, statements of personal power, and in some cases a call to arms.  -KESHA BRUCE, 2016   Magic Spells & Reminders marks KESHA BRUCE’s 5th solo exhibition at Morton Fine Art.   About KESHA BRUCE Kesha Bruce creates richly textured and visually complex artworks that explore the connections between memory, personal mythology, and magical-spiritual belief. Born and raised in Iowa, she completed a BFA from the University of Iowa before earning an MFA in painting from Hunter College in New York City. Kesha Bruce has been awarded fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), The Vermont Studio Center, The CAMAC Foundation, and received a Puffin Foundation Grant for her work with Artist’s Books. Her work is included in the permanent collections of The Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture,The Amistad Center for Art and Culture, The University of Iowa Women’s Center, The En Foco Photography Collection, and The Museum of Modern Art/Franklin Furnace Artist Book Collection.   She is represented by Morton Fine Art in Washington, DC. Click here to view available artwork by KESHA BRUCE.

Remember to Fight 2, 2016, 36″x36″, mixed media on canvas   About Morton Fine Art   Founded as an innovative solution to the changing contemporary art market in 2010, Morton Fine Art (MFA) is a fine art gallery and curatorial group that collaborates with art collectors and visual artists to inspire fresh ways of acquiring contemporary art. Firmly committed to the belief that art collecting can be cultivated through an educational stance, MFA’s mission is to provide accessibility to museum-quality contemporary art through a combination of innovative exhibitions and a new generation of art services.   Morton Fine Art, 1781 Florida Ave NW, Washington, DC 20009 http://www.mortonfineart.com mortonfineart@gmail.com (202) 628-2787

Morton Fine Art’s gallerist AMY MORTON & artist LAUREL HAUSLER at WALA DC’s “Galleries 101: Law for Visual Artists II” panel discussion

Thanks to WALA DC for including Morton Fine Art and MFA artist Laurel Hausler on the panel, “Galleries 101: Law for Visual Artists ll”. February 10th 2016 @ Pepco Edison Place Gallery in Partnership with Art Impact USA.

Thanks to Charlene Hardy for the inclusion, and to art attorney Carl Bedell for leading this very informative panel discussion!

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A peek into VICTOR EKPUK’s upcoming solo in Lagos in Nigerian Guardian

Nigerian Guardian newspaper takes a peek into VICTOR EKPUK’s upcoming solo exhibition in Lagos this April.

 

 

OSI AUDU on his “Self Portrait” drawings in pastel and graphite

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I explore the light sheen of graphite, the matte, light absorbing quality of black pastel, the white of paper and canvas, as well as the visually affecting interactions of colors to investigate form and its evocative potential to suggest or hint at something about the shape of the head. I am interested in the dualism of form and void, and the ontological relation between the tangible and intangible, something and nothing, light and dark, body and mind, the dual nature of being – the self in portraits.

The construction of a sense of self is a very complex process, perhaps even more so in our increasingly global age, in which the boundaries between race, nationality, gender and sexuality are getting more and more blurred. I am interested in issues of self identity, and in concepts of the self rooted in my cultural experiences growing up in Nigeria, as well as global metaphysical, scientific, and social concepts of the self. There is a Yoruba thought that consciousness, referred to as the “head”, has both a physical dimension called the “outer head” and a non-physical one: “the inner head”. It is the visual implications of concepts like this that I find intriguing. The title, Self-Portrait, in my work, is more about the portrait of the intangible self, rather than a literal portrait of the artist.

–Osi Audu, 2015

PHOTOS: Maya Freelon Asante at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore’s Mosely Gallery

Maya Freelon Asante created a beautiful installation for the Black History Month exhibition “History Continues:  Contemporary African-American Artists” which is now on display the University of Maryland Eastern Shore’s Mosely Gallery.

The art display, which runs through March 10, shows “how current events and culture inform the work of contemporary African-American artists,” gallery director Susan Holt said.  “All the artists are young, emerging artists from the Baltimore/Washington area who use quite different materials, themes and approaches, yet contain some connection to the relevance of Black History.”

Artists include:  Michael Booker (University of Maryland 2012), Maya Freelon Asante (School of Museum of Fine Art in Boston 2007), Larry Cook(George Washington 2013), Shaunte Gates, Jeffrey Kent (Maryland Institute College of Art 2010) and Jamea Richmond-Edwards (Howard University 2012).

Companion events accompany the art exhibit.

The Mosely Gallery is free and open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Call 410-651-7770 or visit www.moselygallery.com for more information.

Check out more photos after the jump.

MAYA FREELON ASANTE’s artwork at University of Maryland, Eastern Shore in “History Continues: Contemporary African American Artists

 

 

UMES hosts Black History Month exhibit

“History Continues:  Contemporary African-American Artists,” the University of Maryland Eastern Shore’s Black History Month exhibit, opens Feb. 4 with a reception from 4-6 p.m. in the Mosely Gallery.

The art display, which runs through March 10, shows “how current events and culture inform the work of contemporary African-American artists,” gallery director Susan Holt said.  “All the artists are young, emerging artists from the Baltimore/Washington area who use quite different materials, themes and approaches, yet contain some connection to the relevance of Black History.”

Artists include:  Michael Booker (University of Maryland 2012), Maya Freelon Asante (School of Museum of Fine Art in Boston 2007), Larry Cook (George Washington 2013), Shaunte Gates, Jeffrey Kent (Maryland Institute College of Art 2010) and Jamea Richmond-Edwards (Howard University 2012).

Companion events accompany the art exhibit.

The Mosely Gallery is free and open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Call 410-651-7770 or visit www.moselygallery.com for more information.

 

Click here to view available artwork by MAYA FREELON ASANTE.
Artwork is available at Morton Fine Art, 1781 Florida Ave NW, Washington, DC 20009

(202) 628-2787, mortonfineart@gmail.com, http://www.mortonfineart.com