Virtual tour and artist narration of LISA MYERS BULMASH’s first east coast solo exhibition, “The Home Inside My Head” at Morton Fine Art in Washington, DC.
“For most of this year, we’ve had to make a home inside our heads — because a virus was blocking the way out to “normal” life. That was fine by me at first: home is my castle and retreat. But there’s no vacation from yourself, or the deepest fears for your children’s future. Even a rich interior life becomes over-stuffed with emotions, memories and uncomfortable truths. The works in “The Home Inside My Head” reflect this ambivalence. The “Bought and Paid For” series was born from the love and deep gratitude for my ancestors’ struggles to give me greater opportunities. But even during my sheltered childhood, I recognized not every house feels like home as I experienced it. Not every parent prepares their child for ugly realities like institutional racism. As a 21st century Black woman, I need to make work that explores my disillusionments as well as my hopes for America. Collages like “One Nation, Under Reconstruction” are my attempts to name these experiences as truthfully as I can. I center a Black and female viewpoint in my work, as examples of a specific story illuminating the general human condition. But there’s something else. We can’t continue to tell each other the same stories featuring the same old heroes. Those icons accomplished amazing things everywhere but at home. We need to imagine our next home before we can live in it: this is the place where we build new narratives.” – LISA MYERS BULMASH, 2020
“Katherine Hattam’s work sees the terrain of language as a wilder and more intimate place. This is not a home or a homeland, it is a landscape that belongs to itself. Perhaps it belongs to no one, but lives as all beings live, against the possibility of being owned by another…”
-Dr. Anne Norton
Stacey and Henry Jackson President’s Distinguished Professor of Political ScienceUniversity of Pennsylvania, USA
Selected Collections include:
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, VIC
Ian Potter, Melbourne University, VIC
Bendigo Art Gallery, VIC
Warrnambool Art Gallery, VIC
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, QLD
Mornington Art Gallery, VIC
Grafton City Art Gallery, NSW
National Bank of Australia
Potter Warburg Collection
Hummerston Clark Collection
Bankers Trust Collection
Smorgon Collection
Queen Victoria Hospital Collection
George Patterson Collection
The Darling Foundation
Box Hill City Art Gallery, QLD
Hamilton City Gallery, VIC
Minter Ellison Collection
Artbank
Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, VIC
Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, NSW
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, VIC
Art Gallery of SA, Adelaide, SA
RACV Collection
University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD
LaTrobe University (LUMA), VIC
“Anger and Tenderness”, 2020, 19″x25″, mixed media collage
“A Woman’s Work is Never Done”, 2020, 17″x21″, mixed media collage
“Fly Away”, 2020, 15″x19″, mixed media collage
“Kangaroo Side On”, 2020, 17″x15″, mixed media collage
NOIR, NOIR: MEDITATIONS ON AFRICAN CINEMA AND ITS INFLUENCE ON VISUAL ART PRIZM 2020 – dedicated to exhibiting international artists from the African Diaspora – returns with its eighth edition, taking place from December 1 to 21, 2020. A VIP preview week will take place from November 24 to 30, 2020. PRIZM Art Fair 2020 will be available for online viewing through the PRIZM website and Artsy.net. Film screenings and PRIZM’s panel talks program will be available through the fair’s website.For its eighth edition, PRIZM will present a curated exhibition entitled Noir, Noir: Meditations on African Cinema and Its Influence On Visual Art curated and organized by William Cordova, and Mikhaile Solomon. The special section will include 45 artists from various global locales including, Congo, Haiti, Jamaica, Barbados, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Maarten, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and the United States.
“Noir Noir…” revisits and contemplates the layered rendering of complex communal histories through the lens of African/Diasporic filmmakers past and present, seeking a deeper understanding of global African identity through an evaluation of its intersections with contemporary visual art. Noir, Noir will examine how these films have functioned as harbingers of global African/Diasporic liberation movements and expound on the intersections between contemporary art practice and the spectrum of African/Diasporic film traditions. Noir, Noir references the African avant-garde film tradition as well as contemporary African/Diasporic filmmakers to explore how visual artists have created bodies of work inspired by narratives, aesthetics, cultural notes, and social commentaries poetically rendered in the various cinematic modalities.
Woman in the Mirror, 2019, 36″x28″x6, powder coated steel, edition of 8
The Politician 2018, 36″x28″x6, powder coated steel, edition of 8
Fish For Lunch, 2020, 48″x40″, acrylic on panel
Royals and Goddesses, 2019, acrylic on canvas, 60″x48″
The Prophet, 2019, 36″x28″x6, powder coated steel, edition of 8
Woman Dancing in the Mirror, 2019, 36″x28″x6, powder coated steel, edition of 8
Hip Sista #11, 2015, 60″x48″, acrylic on canvas
Mother Series 1, 2019, 25.5″x20″, acrylic, graphite and collage on paper
Mother Series 3, 2019, 25.5″x20″, acrylic, graphite and collage on paper
Mask Series 1, 2018, 24″x18″, acrylic on canvas
Mask Series 2, 2018, 24″x18″, acrylic on canvas
Victor Ekpuk is a Nigerian-American artist based in Washington, DC.
His art, which began as an exploration of nsibidi “traditional” graphics and writing systems in Nigeria, has evolved to embrace a wider spectrum of meaning that is rooted in African and global contemporary art discourses.
Guided by the aesthetic philosophy nsibidi, where sign systems are used to convey ideas, Ekpuk re-imagines graphic symbols from diverse cultures to form a personal style of mark making that results in the interplay of art and writing.
Ekpuk’s art reflects his experiences as a global artist – “The subject matter of my work deals with the human condition explained through themes that are both universal and specific: family, gender, politics, culture and Identity”.
Mr. EKPUK’s artwork can be found the permanent collection of the following museums and institutions:
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, Washington, DC
Smithsonian Museum of African Art, Washington DC, USA
Krannert Art Museum, USA
Hood Museum, USA
Brooks Museum, USA
Arkansas Art Center, USA
Newark Museum, New Jersey, USA
The World Bank, Washington DC, USA
University of Maryland University College Art Collection, USA
The U.S. Department of State
He has been represented by Morton Fine Art in Washington, DC since 2012.
Morton Fine Art: curator's notes 