Art on Paper NYC | Morton Fine Art | VICTOR EKPUK

LOCATION

Pier 36, Downtown Manhattan
299 South Street
New York, 10002

HOURS

Select VIP Preview
Thursday, September 8, 2022 — 5:00pm to 6:00pm
Exclusive Entry for Select VIPs

Opening Evening
Thursday, September 8, 2022 — 6:00pm to 9:00pm
Exclusive Entry for Fair Pass Holders & Select VIPs

Public Hours
Friday, September 9, 2022 — 11:00am to 7:00pm
Saturday, September 10, 2022 — 11:00am to 7:00pm
Sunday, September 11, 2022 — 11:00pm to 6:00pm 

Morton Fine Art will be presenting the work of VICTOR EKPUK.

Victor Ekpuk is a Nigerian-American artist based in Washington D.C. He is internationally for his paintings, drawings, and sculptures, which reimagine the ancient Nigerian communication system, Nsibidi, to create his own unique language of abstraction. Ekpuk’s work engages with a diverse spectrum of meaning, often mining historical narratives, the contemporary African diaspora, and humanity’s connection to the sacred.

Ekpuk’s three decade long career has resulted in prestigious national and international exhibitions, including, Dakar Biennial, Senegal; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; Museum of Arts and Design, NYC; Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C.; Somerset House, London; New Museum of Contemporary Art, NYC; and the 12th Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba.

Ekpuk’s work is included in numerous collections including the Bank ABC International Headquarters in the Kingdom of Bahrain; Elizabeth Miller Sculpture Center; Hood Museum; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art; Krannert Art Museum; Newark Museum; Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture; The World Bank; United States Art in Embassies Art Collection; Microsoft Art Collection and Smithsonian National Museum of African Art.

In recent years, Ekpuk has focused on large-scale murals, installations, and public art projects. In 2017, he completed a 30 x 18 foot centerpiece mural for the North Carolina Museum of Art. Memphis Brooks Museum then commissioned Ekpuk to create a 58 foot mural titled Essence of Memphis. In 2019, he completed a 20 foot metal sculpture Hope and Dream Under Glory commissioned by the Washington D.C. city government and housed at Boone Elementary School in Southeast Washington, D.C. Also in 2019, he installed The Face, a 17 foot landmark sculpture commissioned by Bank ABC (Arab Bank Corporation) at its world headquarters in The Kingdom of Bahrain.

Ekpuk is a Smithsonian Fellow and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Obafemi Awolowo University. He has been commissioned by The Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African Art to design trophies awarded to recipients of the museum’s first African Art Awards, as well as by Random House Publishers to illustrate new covers for Chinua Achebe, Africa’s most celebrated author.

Mr. Ekpuk has been represented by Morton Fine Art since 2012.

Available Artwork by VICTOR EKPUK

MFA presents Michael Andrew Booker | Future Fair NYC | Booth R2 B

Future Fair’s second in person edition of the exhibition will take place at Chelsea Industrial, located in the gallery district at 535 W 28th Street.

Visit our Website

Morton Fine Art’s booth is R2B featuring a solo presentation of drawings by MICHAEL ANDREW BOOKER. FUTURE FAIR May 5-7, 2022 Chelsea Industrial 535 W 28th St. New York City VIP PREVIEW Wednesday, May 4, 2022, 4-8PM PUBLIC DAYS Thursday, May 5, 2022, 12-7PM Friday, May 6, 2022, 12-7PM Saturday, May 7, 2022, 12-6PM Closed Sunday Future Fair, known for cross gallery collaboration, will continue to work with partnered exhibitors in shared exhibition spaces. Available Artwork by MICHAEL ANDREW BOOKER About Future Fair

I am Not Complaining, Nor am I Protesting Either. It is Sometimes Advantageous to Be Unseen, 2022, 30″x22″, fineliner pen and fabric on paper

In Michael Andrew Booker’s compositions, portraits are partially shielded by swaths of color, and views are intercepted by lush organic forms. Joining geometric designs with figuration, Booker’s drawings are rich in dynamism and detail, the artist acting as a conductor of a broad symphony of colors and tones. Owing to the drawing practice itself as a healing mechanism, Booker documents the emotional terrains crossed by the artist amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and concurrent instances of social injustice. His artwork gestures towards the strategies of emotional self-protection harnessed by the artist during periods of vulnerability and contemplation, barriers made visible in the layered effects captured by the drawings themselves.

Black Ice, 2022, 20″x14″, fineliner pen on paper

Despite the complexity of Booker’s compositions, each line and brushstroke remains visible, the artist using a wide range of materials and instruments, including fine liner pen, colored pencil, watercolor, and alcohol ink. Booker’s mastery of his tools is evidenced by his ability to create dense fields of light, shadow, and texture through the careful application of fine lines, resulting in superimposed tableaus reminiscent of collage or digital manipulation. Reverberating with the work’s themes, the meticulous process by which such depth and emotion is rendered echoes the strained experiences of self-reflection, growth, and reconciliation experienced by the artist during the course of these drawings’ creations. “These drawings chronicle a personal and emotional journey caused by the effects of a prolonged pandemic and moments of social injustice,” said artist Michael Booker. “Volatile social interactions became commonplace in both media and amongst friends. Over time, a realization of resiliency set in, as these drawings became a form of cathartic therapy to search for a nuanced visual reflection of the turmoil that lingered within.”

Strike Twice, 2022, 48″x28″,fineliner pen, color pencil, ink, chiffon fabric, doily, paper, and yupo

Though invested with fraught emotions, the cohesion and harmony of the resulting works ultimately foreground hope and optimism. Capturing individuals immersed in solitary contemplation as well as in embrace, Booker’s drawings suggest resilience and reconciliation amidst societal and interpersonal volatility, demonstrating a multiplicity of pathways toward new light.

Retrograde, 2021, 26″x22″, fineliner pen, watercolor on paper and yupo

Available artwork by MICHAEL ANDREW BOOKER

About MICHAEL ANDREW BOOKER

Michael Booker is a mixed media artist originally from Jackson, Mississippi who currently resides in Maryland. He received his BFA in Studio Art – Painting from Mississippi State University in 2008, and received his MFA in Studio Art from University of Maryland in 2012. He has exhibited in various galleries across Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, Maine, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC. His work has been acquired by the David C. Driskell Center in College Park, MD. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor of Art at Montgomery College Takoma Park/Silver Spring.   Booker has been represented by Morton Fine Art in Washington, DC since 2019.

About Morton Fine Art

Founded in 2010 in Washington, DC by curator Amy Morton, 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 substantive exhibitions and a welcoming platform for dialogue and exchange of original voice. Morton Fine Art specializes in a stellar roster of nationally and internationally renowned artists as well as has an additional focus on artwork of the African Diaspora. Morton Fine Art founded the trademark *a pop-up project in 2010. *a pop-up project is MFA’s mobile gallery component which hosts temporary curated exhibitions nationally. Gallery hours: By appointment only. Mask required. Morton Fine Art 52 O St NW #302 Washington, DC 20001 (202) 628-2787 info@mortonfineart.com www.mortonfineart.com

Wallpaper Magazine, Victor Ekpuk and Prizm Art Fair 2020

ART | 1 DAY AGO | BY HARRIET LLOYD-SMITH

Prizm Art Fair gives a platform to African Diasporic perspectives

Coinciding with Miami Art Week, Prizm Art Fair is championing and examining the intersections of African cinema traditions and visual art

Sthenjwa Luthuli, Reaching For Stars (2020)

In spite of widespread coronavirus-related hurdles, 2020 has offered glimmers of hope for the art world, particularly in the steps taken to highlight, and rectify the lack of diversity across the industry.

One art fair, Prizm, has been spotlighting diverse voices in contemporary visual art since 2013, with a core mission to widen the scope of international contemporary art from Africa and the African Diaspora.

By carving out a space for cross-cultural exchange in Miami and beyond, the fair seeks to address socio-political and cultural issues pertinent to people of African descent, while educating and nurturing the city’s inhabitants.

Victor Ekpuk, Mother Series #1 (2019) as seen at Prizm Art Fair. Image courtesy of Morton Fine Art

‘African Diasporic communities have attempted repeatedly to blanket themselves from a host of incessant obstacles – systemic injustice, racism, economic disparity, gender inequality – while the goal post of progress stretched farther away with each giant leap made towards it,’ says Mikhaile Solomon, founder and director of Prizm.

For its eighth edition, coinciding with an unsurprisingly scaled-down Miami Art Week, the fair’s online programme will feature 47 artists in ‘Noir, Noir: Meditations on African Cinema and its Influence on Visual Art’, an exhibition curated and organised by Solomon and interdisciplinary artist William Cordova. Noir, Noir references the African avant-garde film tradition and encourages a deeper understanding of global African identities through the intersection of cinema and contemporary visual art. Elsewhere, highlights include a programme of film screenings and talks led by leaders in Diasporic Visual arts.

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John Baloyi, Lititha 4 (2020). Courtesy of Dyman Gallery

Participating galleries hail from eleven countries including the United States, Caribbean and the African continent including Barbados, Ethiopia, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Saint Maarten, South Africa and Trinidad. Featured artists include Victor Ekpuk, Yanira Collado, Sthenjwa Luthuli, Alicia Piller, Justice Mukheli, Versia Harris and Milena Carranza Valcárcel. Prizm will also spotlight emerging Miami-based artists who engage in socio-political issues pertinent to people of African descent, and in the city’s growth as a cultural hub. 

 

Peter Wayne Lewis, Suite in Grey # 13 (2010)

Yanira Collado, Untitled (2020)

Justice Mukheli, Departure (2019). Courtesy of Dyman Gallery

Francisco Maso, Obtuse Exercises for Dissenting Bodies (2018 – ongoing)

Milena Carranza Valcárcel, Serie ’Afroperuvian Eggun’ (2010)

Prizm Art Fair will be accessible online until 21 December 2020. prizmartfair.com

Link to Wallpaper* Article

Available Artwork by VICTOR EKPUK

VICTOR EKPUK- featured solo in Morton Fine Art’s booth at Prizm Art Fair 2020

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.

Register HERE

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  Woman in the Mirror, 2019, 36″x28″x6, powder coated steel, edition of 8

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  The Politician 2018, 36″x28″x6, powder coated steel, edition of 8

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  Fish For Lunch, 2020, 48″x40″, acrylic on panel

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  Royals and Goddesses, 2019, acrylic on canvas, 60″x48″

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  The Prophet, 2019, 36″x28″x6, powder coated steel, edition of 8

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  Woman Dancing in the Mirror, 2019, 36″x28″x6, powder coated steel, edition of 8

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  Hip Sista #11, 2015, 60″x48″, acrylic on canvas

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  Mother Series 1, 2019, 25.5″x20″, acrylic, graphite and collage on paper

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  Mother Series 3, 2019, 25.5″x20″, acrylic, graphite and collage on paper

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  Mask Series 1, 2018, 24″x18″, acrylic on canvas

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  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.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW AVAILABLE ARTWORK BY VICTOR EKPUK

Morton Fine Art, 52 O St NW #302, Washington, DC 20001

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

 

NATALIE CHEUNG featured in PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai : Cyanotype

 

PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai PRESENTS: Cyanotype

August 3 to September 4, 2020

Live from 10am (BST)

photofairs.org/cyanotype 

We are delighted to announce that artist NATALIE CHEUNG has been invited to take part in the online exhibition PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai PRESENTS: Cyanotype. Stemming from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines, the 16 chosen artists all explore the cyanotype process by breaking away from convention to help further the photographic medium.

Contact the gallery for additional information and acquisition.

PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai online exhibition is on view until September 4th, 2020.

 

Morton Fine Art

http://www.mortonfineart.com

+001 202 628 2787

 

AMBER ROBLES-GORDON’s series “Place of Breath and Birth” created in her birth country of Puerto Rico

 

Place of Breath and Birth

Series, Collage, 2020

Botánica del Amor, Autorreflexión y Espiritualidad, 18 x 24, 2020

Place of Breath and Birth

Solo Exhibition at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Background:

As my first opportunity to exhibit in the Caribbean and to deepen my relationship with my birthplace, San Juan, Puerto Rico – la Isla del Encanto (the enchanted island) – I have titled this solo exhibition at Galleria de Arte, Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in Santurce, Puerto Rico, Place of Breath and Birth. My artwork is about my personal narrative and the intersections of womanhood, patriarchy, hybridism, and Americanism. My intention is to further contextualize my narrative and artwork within the political, socioeconomic, and environmental threads that define and are often in my opinion used to control, alienate and or mistreat Puerto Ricans in generally and Afro-Puerto Ricans in particular.

The intention of this exhibition is to empower my five-year-old self. To give her the strength to fight for herself, her language and culture. I was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and raised in Arlington, Virginia. My first language was Spanish, yet at about five years old, I came home one day and told my mother: “I was not speaking Spanish anymore”. From then on, I responded to my Spanish/English speaking mother in English only. Later, I came to understand that I had surrendered my Spanish tongue—a critical part of my cultural identity— so that I could “fit” a version of myself that could possibly coincide with the prescribed box that others had for a brown-skinned girl such as myself.  Although in time, the name calling ceased, however, the micro-aggressions, insensitive questions, assumptions, and judgments about my brownness lingered. Throughout this life, time-after-time, I have had to choose to identify with my brownness/blackness over the other cultural ties that bind other Spanish speaking people with their culture.

My Caribbean family—with roots in Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, and Antigua— has long been impacted and splintered, by the search or pursuit of education, better income, and greener pastures. As with all achievement, there are gains and losses. The fruit includes a well-educated family with greater exposure to the world and economic and social opportunities. Yet, the primary sacrifice is our distance from the thickened knotted roots of Caribbean Black and Latino heritage and culture that living at home might have provided. – AMBER ROBLES-GORDON, 2020

Visiting Puerto Rico:

In preparation for this exhibit, my mother and I spent two weeks in September 2019 Puerto Rico. My mother was returning to her childhood home and I was visiting for the first time as an adult. Since then, I have returned to PR to give an artist talk as part of Sagrado de Corazon’s visiting art program and to live in PR for extended period to produce the artwork for this exhibition.  Due to the impact of continuing earthquakes in Puerto Rico from 2019 unward and the COVID 19 epidemic, the format and focus of this artwork has shifted. On July 10, 2020, Place of Breath and Birth will be featured online by the Galleria de Arte, Universidad del Sagrado Corazón on its website at https://www.sagrado.edu/visitingartist/. Additionally, please check out the interview with myself and Norma Vila, Directora de la Galería de Sagrado at https://insagrado.sagrado.edu/las-recientes-iniciativas-de-la-galeria-de-sagrado/?fbclid=IwAR3omEVgPUlcm67lRRBbaliuhimPu6GK-PwK4toQS7CNH0y5IxsidHs9kUw to find out additional details about the residency and my experiences in Puerto Rico.

The Artwork:

Upon its completion, Place of Breath and Birth, will include ten (10) mix-media collages. This digital exhibit includes the first four collage works of the series. Included in this virtual exhibition are the following works: Botánica del Amor, Autorreflexión y Espiritualidad (Botany of Love, Self-reflection and Spirituality), La Island del Encanto (The Island of Enchantment), and Tendedero, Comunidad y Energía Eterna (Clothesline, Community and Eternal Energy). Each collage measures 18 X 24 inches and is made of acrylic paint, magazine paper, permanent ink line drawings, fabric, and other mixed media items.

A foundational symbology of this body of work is the Fiscus Elastica commonly known as the Rubber Tree, rubber fig or rubber plant.  I was introduced to the Rubber Tree while in Puerto Rico on the grounds of the Universidad de Sagrado de Corazón (University of the Sacred Heart) campus. Among its extensive botanical collection of indigenous plants of Puerto Rico; I found a large banyan tree whose broad canopy sheltered smaller versions of itself growing at its feet. This tree appeared to be a literal fusion of past, present and future state of creation or sustaining an ecosystem. In La Isla del Encanto (pictured below) and throughout this series are abstracted representations of the rubber tree– an entanglement of strong roots – as a example of its resiliency this tree most recently stood-fast to its native soil while 155 mph winds that battered the campus.

Isla del Encanta, 18 x 24, 2020

The second most important symbolic layer of the work are the depictions and interpretations of the transitions of day to night and night to day. I intentionally choose a studio and apartment on the third floor in Puerto Nuevo with three-dimensional exposure to light. I then surrounded myself with plants to create an internal garden a reflection of the thousands of “porch gardens” featured throughout PR neighborhoods. From this perch, I could see the changing environment as the light increased or waned and how the varying aspects of weather altered each day. Depending on where I stood, and the time of day, I had a virtual window into the varying socioeconomics aspects of diversity of the island. The combination of the verdant and vibrant nature of the island landscape, my internal garden and the third floor weather allowed for the feeling of creating an atmosphere.

As I progressed through researching, photographing, living and ultimately creating after the beginning of COVID 19 quarantine the cylinder abstracted rubber tree forms expanded to circular ecospheres to convey a spiritual and ethereal connections to and within my immediate environment. Throughout some of the artworks I am a figure, a witness to the beauty and complexity of the Puerto Rican landscape – tropical jungle, 1,000 of miles of carreteras, the co-mingling and isolation of three major ethnic/racial groups – Taino, the Spanish and Africans, the strangle hold of the United States and the impact of the Caribbean Sea, with its threat of hurricanes, scorching summer heat and lush landscape.

Ultimately, I hope this narrative and artwork gives voice to others who walk in brownness—who breathe within a female form, and or—- who do not quite fit the norms…yet are Bold and Proud. – AMBER ROBLES-GORDON, 2020

Tendedero, Comunidad y Energía Eterna, 18 x 24, 2020

Elemental: Tierra, Aire, Agua, Fuego, 18 x 24, 2020

Available Artwork by AMBER ROBLES-GORDON

Morton Fine Art

52 O St NW #302

Washington, DC 20001

(202) 628-2787 (call or text)

http://www.mortonfineart.com

mortonfineart@gmail.com

Morton Fine Art exhibits MICHAEL BOOKER & AMBER ROBLES-GORDON at Prizm Art Fair 2019

 

Morton Fine Art at Prizm Art Fair this December during Miami Art Week
December 2 – 8, 2019

Prizm Art Fair
Morton Fine Art – Booth 3
Alfred I. DuPont Building
169 East Flagler St.
Miami, Florida

Morton Fine Art will be introducing fine liner ink drawings of MICHAEL BOOKER alongside mixed media artworks by AMBER ROBLES-GORDON.

 

MICHAEL BOOKER, Show Me the Wisdom In Your Movements, 2019, 30″x22″, fineliner pen, watercolor and collage on paper and Yupo

Available Artwork by MICHAEL BOOKER

 

 

 

AMBER ROBLES-GORDON, Their Eyes of God, 2018, 36″x36″, ink drawing and collage on paper

Available Artwork by AMBER ROBLES-GORDON

 

Hyperallergic, Prizm and Morton Fine Art’s Osi Audu and Amber Robles-Gordon

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ART

In Miami, a Fair for Artists from Africa and the African Diaspora Shines Again

The Prizm Art Fair, which consistently shows great work, has finally been given the room to breathe.

Monica Uszerowicz 

Charo Oquet, “Like an arrow, like a tree, like a mountain” (2018), mixed media-installation (image courtesy the artist)

MIAMI — Construction of the Alfred I. duPont Building was completed in 1939, when its primary tenant was the Florida National Bank. I have been there three times in the last two years — once to see Trina perform on an old vault for a Borscht Film Festival party, then for an anticlimactic ghost tour, and last night, for Prizm Art Fair. The space is sweeping and beautiful and very appropriate for Prizm — a fair that consistently shows great work in spaces that never did it justice. It always shone through, but here, in this building, with all its breadth and light, the feeling was a sigh of relief. Work like this needs space. Room to breathe.

Left: Patrick Quarm, “Dada,” oil paint, African print, 33 x 34 1/4 inches; Right: “Mama ba,” oil paint, African print fabric on canvas, 42 x 32 1/2 inches (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

Now in its sixth edition, Prizm features talks, performances, and 63 artists across several participating galleries and three specifically curated sections. Dr. Jeffreen M. Hayes’s section, The Diaspora Currency: Black Women, focuses on work by or featuring black women, a means of centering their voices as valuable, actual currency. That’s a real through-line in the fair: reparations, or that which is reparative. Curative. Transforming the forces of capitalism and white supremacy into systems and imaginaries that empower those forced to live under it. “Renegotiation,” says Mikhaile Solomon, Prizm’s founder.

Jamele Wright, “In Transit Number 9” (2018), on display at September Gray (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

Solomon has curated her own section, The Dark Horse, which refers to the archetype of the same name — the unforeseen visitor, or here, powerful retaliation. She’s included work like Dáreece J. Walker’s charcoal drawings of die-ins, entitled “The Die-Ins: Can I live” (2018), and a video of Dread Scott’s 2010 performance, “Money to Burn,” in which he burned $250 on Wall Street and invited traders to do the same. Nearby, in the gallery section, Tahir Carl Karmali’s draped raffia robes shine with inlaid cobalt — your phone battery is probably made with it, and a child might’ve mined it. There’s a cost to these hard truths, and one for learning them: willful suspension of disbelief. But knowledge can be reclamation, too.

Christa David, “When the Smoke Clears” (2018) (image courtesy the artist and TILA Studios Gallery)

The work at Prizm also channels the spirit of embodiment — the literal, manifested act of being fully inside one’s body. Presence, people call it. Reimagining the self is some form of transformation as well; it’s everywhere at Prizm: Osi Audu’s graphite self-portraits that look like voids, their sheen a suggestion of what’s inside. Amber Robles-Gordon’s works that look like mandalas, decorated with her belongings — cowrie shells, jewels — and entrail-like snakes. Adriana Farmiga’s watercolor acrylic nails, painted rainbow-pastel. Jamele Wright’s big, gorgeous tapestries of fabric, repeated patterns — a reference to the mingling of identities, recycling, even in hip-hop — and red dirt from the earth.

Osi Audu, “Self Portrait after Dogon Bird Mask II” (2018), graphite and pastel on paper mounted on canvas, 15 x 22 inches (image courtesy the artist and Morton Fine Art)

Amber Robles-Gordon, “South and of the Fire” (2016), mixed media on canvas, 34 x 35 inches (image courtesy the artist and Morton Fine Art)

The artist William Cordova curated the third section: Transceivers: channels, outlets and forces. It’s the first you see, and the one I went to last. Experiencing Prizm in a circle — in a cycle — feels right, because the works speak to each other, and the conversation is continuous. Ritual is prominent in Cordova’s section, specifically the ritual of transmitting history, maybe rewriting it. Khaulah Naima Nuruddin’s graphite drawings of Eatonville homes, intimate and distant from the very paper they’re portrayed on, reference the formerly all-black town in Orlando.

Purvis Young at William Cordova’s Transceivers: channels, outlets and forces, installation view (image by Victoria Ravelo)

Prizm’s video works were my favorite of all. Ezra Wube’s animated video, “Hidirtina/ Sisters” (2018), in Solomon’s section, is part of a story collection Wube started in 2004, when he sent out an open call for folklore to a Habesha diaspora community in New York City. His animation is based on a volunteer’s short story, which centers on a group of seven immortal sisters, one  of who falls in love with a hunter. Against the sisters’ warning, he murders a deer, whose sudden listlessness is rendered slowly; his beloved instructs him to climb a tree to protect himself from subsequent cosmic retaliation. Onajide Shabaka’s one-minute “Henry Meade Leighton 1881” (2018), located in Cordova’s section, tells the story of a man’s body, discovered in a river, covered in the muck of swamps. Though his pockets were “officially said to be empty,” says the narrator, “a woven knot of long, black hair was found … inside one pocket of his overalls. Some said, a naked woman of light complexion with long black hair, had been seen swimming in the area. But every search for her ended with no evidence of the woman being found.”

Tahir Carl Karmali, “STRATA I,” raffia, cobalt, oxide, copper and aluminum, 69 x 52 inches (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

The body of the earth is, I think, another thread in Prizm — its ills and treasures, its destruction, the way its losses mirror human loss, the way it grows, enchants, and flourishes anyway.

Prizm Art Fair continues at the Alfred I. DuPont Building (169 East Flagler Street, Miami) through December 9.

Preview of Morton Fine Art’s Booth at Prizm Art Fair in Miami

 

 

Sneak Preview of Morton Fine Art’s Booth at Prizm Art Fair in Miami Contact the gallery for complimentary passes.

Visit our Website

Morton Fine Art will be closed 12/5-12/8 during our time in Miami, however we are available by phone (202) 628-2787 or mortonfineart@gmail.com if you need to reach us!

OSI AUDU THE TANGIBLE AND INTANGIBLE 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 COLLECTIONS Smithsonian Museum of African Art The Newark Museum The British Museum Horniman Museum Wellcome Trust Gallery Available Artwork by OSI AUDU

OSI AUDU, Self-Portrait after Dogon Bird Mask II, 2018, 15″x22″, graphite and pastel on paper mounted on canvas OSI AUDU, Self Portrait after Igbo Mask, 2018, 11″x15″, acrylic on canvas

KESHA BRUCE

KESHA BRUCE, The Sky Opened for Her, 2016, 60″x48″, mixed media on canvas KESHA BRUCE, Fight Fire with Fire, 2017, 40″x30″, mixed media on canvas

Artwork is spiritwork. When I pray, I ask my ancestors for the bravery to follow and make manifest the deepest truths and longings of my heart. Every artwork I create is an answered prayer. In this current political and social moment my prayers are especially urgent: Where can Black women feel safe? Where can we feel free? How do we protect our spirits from those who mean to destroy us? As an artist, these questions always lead me back to my work.  In my experience, the most powerful weapon for spiritual warfare is joy. I’m not being hyperbolic when I tell you that the process of making artwork has saved my life many, many times. Art is a refuge for the spirit. It offers us a way to understand and heal ourselves. I am of the mind that something absolutely prophetic can be revealed in both the act of making and the act of looking at art. Art objects embody spiritual power. I believe this so firmly now, that it seems almost surreal to think back to a time, not so long ago, when I was afraid to speak about my work in spiritual terms for fear of being called less serious or less intellectually rigorous. It’s clear to me now that often our fears show us the parts of ourselves that are desperately waiting to be revealed. To be set free. So, I present this new work with the firm knowledge that what I am creating is an important and worthy contribution to the current cultural dialogue. More importantly, I consider my work a part of a strategy for resistance. Even as we steel ourselves for battle ahead, we must remember to leave room for joy. Joy is sacred and so it is worth fighting for. Remember to fight. -KESHA BRUCE SELECTED COLLECTIONS Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (14 pieces), Washington, DC The Amistad Center for Art and Culture, Hartford, CT The Museum of Modern Art, Franklin Furnace Artist Book Collection, New York, NY The University of Iowa Women’s Center, Iowa City, IA The En Foco Photography Collection, New York, NY The Museum of Modern Art/Franklin Furnace Artist Book Collection, New York, NY Available Artwork by KESHA BRUCE

NATHANIEL DONNETT African textiles, Gee’s Bend Quilts, and the everyday aesthetic within the historic African American neighborhoods of Houston, Texas inspire “Boom”. This work acts as a reminder to the extrinsic value of these neighborhoods through the lens of its spatial geography and relationship to gentrification, along with objects and form in terms of cultural iconography, and the everyday aesthetic. Drum notations and Houston’s hip-hop car culture formulate the abstract patterns. These patterns act as a response to the marginalization of Black American identity, the black spatial imaginary, and contemporary art. During the times of American slavery, it was said that southern quilts communicated warnings to the slaves. Although this was found to be a myth, this contemporary makeshift quilt does communicate moments of neighborhood erasure and the silencing of its cultural contributions. It also simultaneously celebrates the neighborhood’s cultural socio- consciousness and overall complexity. -NATHANIEL DONNETT MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS The Ulrich Museum, Wichita, KS The McColl Center, Charlotte, NC The American Museum, Washington, DC The Kemper Contemporary Arts Museum, Kansas City, MO The Theresa Hotel, Harlem, NY Harvey B Gantt Art Center for African American Arts and Culture, Charlotte, NC The Community Artist’s Collective The Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury CT The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, TX Project Row Houses, Houston, TX The University Museum, Houston, TX The New Museum, New York, NY

NATHANIEL DONNETT, Boom, 2018, 40″x46″, duct tape, plastic and photographs on paper Available Artwork by NATHANIEL DONNETT

VICTOR EKPUK VICTOR EKPUK, Head 4, 2015, 45″x48″, acyrlic on panel VICTOR EKPUK, Mask Series 1, 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” -Victor Ekpuk COLLECTIONS Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture Smithsonian Museum of African Art Brooks Museum Krannert Art Museum Arkansas Art Center Fidelity Investments Newark Museum The World Bank University of Maryland University College Art Collection The U. S. Department of State Available Artwork by VICTOR EKPUK

MAYA FREELON Maya Freelon is an award-winning visual artist whose work was described by the late poet Maya Angelou as “visualizing the truth about the vulnerability and power of the human being.” Cosmopolitan Magazine featured her in June 2015 in “Art Stars” calling her one “of the most badass female artists in the biz.”  She was commissioned by Google to design original art for their OnHub router, by Cadillac to create a live-sculpture for their Dare Greatly creative campaign, and by the North Carolina Museum of Art to create a collaborative tissue paper sculpture celebrating the opening of their African Art wing. Her unique tissue paper art, praised by the International Review of African American Art as “a vibrant, beating assemblage of color,” has been exhibited internationally, including shows in Paris, Jamaica, Madagascar, and Italy. She was selected by Modern Luxury Magazine as Best of the City; by Huffington Post as “Black Artists: 30 Contemporary Art Makers Under 40 You Should Know”; and by Complex magazine as “15 Young Black   Artists Making Waves in the Art World.”  Maya has completed residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, the Korobitey Institute in Ghana, and the Brandywine Workshop in Philadelphia. She earned a BA from Lafayette College and an MFA from theSchool of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. COLLECTIONS U.S. State Department U.S. Embassy in Madagascar U.S. Embassy Swaziland U.S. Embassy Rome The University of Maryland (David C. Driskell Center) Johns Hopkins University Rocketship Rise Academy; The Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists The Reginald F. Lewis Museum The School of the Museum of Fine Arts The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Lafayette College The Brandywine Workshop The Experimental Printmaking Institute The Williston Northampton School The Kokrobitey Institute Lewis Tanner Moore Dr. Maya Angelou Available Artwork by MAYA FREELON

photo credit: Christopher Charles MAYA FREELON, Compression, 2017, 44″x34″, tissue ink monoprint MAYA FREELON, Intuition, 2017, 46″x44″, tissue ink monoprint

AMBER ROBLES-GORDON AMBER ROBLES-GORDON, Awakening the Matrilineal: Calling in the West, 36″x36″, mixed media on canvas AMBER ROBLES-GORDON, Awakening the Matrilineal: South and of the Fire, 2016, 34″x35″, mixed media on canvas

Awakening the Matrilineal “My artwork is a visual representation of my hybridism: a fusion of my gender, ethnicity, cultural, and social experiences. I impose colors, imagery, and materials that evoke femininity and tranquility with the intent of transcending or balancing a specific form. I associate working with light, color, and energy as a positive means to focus on the healing power found in the creative process and within us all. It is my belief that colors have both feminine and masculine energies and each color represents a specific aspect of nature.” -Amber Robles Gordon COLLECTIONS Judith A. Hoffberg Archive Library University of California, Santa Barbara, CA Masterpiece Miniature Art Exhibition, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Capital One Bank, Mc Clean,Virginia District of Columbia’s Art Bank, Washington, D.C. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, NY The Gautier Family Collection, Washington, DC Available Artwork by AMBER ROBLES-GORDON

NATE LEWIS In continuing my work with black figures I sculpt in unseen tensions of the past present and future on bodies with the idea of utilizing diagnostic lenses and contrast dyes to reveal erased and unknown histories and patterns. Through the use of presence, absence, distortion and illusion and while in a time when the digital world has severe control of our information feeds I aim to challenge our lens’, the powers that hold our attention, and create opportunities for questioning and perspective alteration. In my time working as a critical care nurse, we would use a multitude of lenses to gain a broad understanding of what is going on with any given situation to find homeostasis. While facts and diagnostic information can inform us of any given situation, without empathy and perspective alteration, our hearts will remain unchanged. – NATE LEWIS Nate Lewis grew up in Beaver Falls, near Pittsburgh, Pa. He graduated from VCU with his BSN and was a practicing critical care nurse for five years as well as professional fine artist. He has been awarded prestigious residencies at Pioneer Works and Dieu Donne in NYC, Agora Culture on Martha’s Vineyard and won a number of artist fellowship grants from the DC Commission of the Arts and Humanities. Available Artwork by NATE LEWIS

NATE LEWIS, Spirit Suite, 2018, 21.5″x26″, hand sculpted photo paper print NATE LEWIS, Traverse Suite, 2018, 26″x26″, hand sculpted photo paper print

About Morton Fine Art Founded in 2010 in Washington, DC, 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 anyone can become an art collector or enthusiast, MFA’s mission is to provide accessibility to museum-quality contemporary art through a combination of substantive exhibitions and a welcoming platform for dialogue and exchange of original voice. Morton Fine Art 52 O St NW #302 Washington, DC 20001 (202) 628-2787 mortonfineart@gmail.com www.mortonfineart.com For further information and images, please contact Amy Morton: mortonfineart@gmail.com #

Prizm Art Fair highlighted during Miami Art Week in South Florida Caribbean News

 

By South Florida Caribbean News November 19, 2018

African Diasporic Perspectives Get Their Due During Miami Art Week

PRIZM Art Fair, now in its sixth year, will present 63 artists and a series of thought-provoking programs, representing 15 countries and four continents in Downtown Miami

MIAMI – PRIZM Art Fair dedicated to exhibiting international artists from the African Diaspora returns to Miami with its sixth edition, taking place at the Alfred I. DuPont Building (169 East Flagler Street) from Dec. 3 to 9, 2018.

The fair will open on Tues., Dec. 4 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., with a special public opening reception sponsored by the Miami DDA from 4 to 8 p.m.

PRIZM is presented in partnership with the Knight Foundation, the Alfred I. DuPont Building, Miami Downtown Development Authority and the Green Family Foundation.

For the sixth edition, PRIZM will present the work of 63 artists within two curated exhibitions, eight exhibitors, and five special events, representing 15 countries and four continents, including the Bahamas, Barbados, Costa Rica, Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Ghana, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, Trinidad & Tobago and the United States.

Participating galleries include Alaina Simone Inc, Tafeta + Partners, Emerson Dorsch, Morton Fine Art, N’Namdi Contemporary (Miami), N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art (Detroit), September Gray, and TILA Studio.

Mikhaile Solomon

PRIZM Founding Director Mikhaile Solomon and artist William Cordova will present “The Dark Horse” and “Transceivers: channels, outlets and forces,” respectively.

Solomon’s “The Dark Horse” will consider how the disenfranchised negotiate, re-appropriate and reclaim the tactics used against them to build a future that is inclusive of prosperity for everyone. Cordova’s “Transceivers: channels, outlets and forces” focuses on the intersections between futurism, ritual and the folkloric, three themes that are fluid and continuously transmitting, receiving, informing and forming the world around us.

 

PRIZM’s programming initiatives 

“PRIZM Preview,” “PRIZM Panel,” “PRIZM Film,” “PRIZM Perform” and “PRIZM 6” boast an international experience in partnership with The Africa Center, Barbados Tourism & Marketing and Mount Gay Rum, as well as thought provoking conversations with industry leaders such as Dr. David C. Driskell and Curlee Holton, and performance works that defy and expand our conventional understanding of visual arts practice.

Additionally, PRIZM will feature emerging Miami based artists who are actively engaged in perpetuating the city’s growth as a cultural hub. These artists also address sociopolitical and cultural issues pertinent to the people of African descent in Miami and beyond.

 

PRIZM Art Fair Participating Artists

PRIZM Art Fair will feature artwork by Olu Amoda, Stephen Arboite, Osi Audu, Nicole Awai, Lillian Blades, Alicia Brown, Nyame Brown, Kesha Bruce, Christopher Carter, Ify Chiejina, Taha Clayton, Yanira Collado, Victor Ekpuk, Adriana Farmiga, Maya Freelon, Alfred Conteh, Damon Davis, Morel Doucet, Shaunte Gates, Monique Gilpin, LaMont Hamilton, LaToya Hobbs, Wayne Hodge, Deborah Jack, Justin D. Johnson, N. Masani Landfair, Nate Lewis, Kelley-Ann Lindo, Daniel Lind Ramos, Tahir Carl Karmali, Jodie Lyn Kee Chow, T. Elliott Mansa, Mildred Beltré Martinez, Jared McGriff, Helina Metafari, Kishan Munroe, Marilyn Nance, Shervone Neckles, Khaulah Nuruddin, Nnenna Okore, Niyi Olagunju, Charo Oquet, Alexis Peskine, Robles Gordon, Marton Robinson, Phillip Robinson, Michael Roman, Tylonn Sawyer, Dread Scott, Frank Schroder, Onajide Shabaka, Stephon Senegal, Tariku Shiferaw, Nyugen Smith, Stanley Squirewell, Jean Marcel St. Jacques, Felandus Thames, Dareece Walker, Ronald Williams, Deborah Willis, Paula Wilson, Sephora Woldu and Ezra Wube.

PRIZM Art Fair Programming Highlights 

• PRIZM Press Preview (First view for press professionals only)

Mon., Dec. 3 from 12 to 4 p.m.

 

• PRIZM VIP Preview (By invitation only)

Mon., Dec. 3 from 6 to 9 p.m.

 

• PRIZM Preview VIP Dinner 

Mon., Dec. 3 from 5 to 8 p.m.

In partnership with the Africa Center and Barbados Tourism, PRIZM welcomes guests for an experiential dinner event with Keynote Speaker Uzodinma Iweala, CEO of the Africa Center and Author of the award winning novel, Beasts of No Nation.

 

• PRIZM Opening 

Tuesday December 4 from 4 to 8 p.m.

Opening reception sponsored by the Miami Downtown Development Authority.

 

• PRIZM Panel

Wed., Dec. 5 from 4 to 5:30 p.m.

The David C. Driskell Center at the University Maryland, College Park presents “The Living Legacy National Speaking Tour” event with Professors David C. Driskell and Curlee R. Holton.

This event will highlight Professor Driskell’s legacy as an artist, scholar and cultural historian and his contributions as well as the contributions of other African American artists to the American artistic canon.

Professor Curlee R. Holton is an artist, master printer and the Executive Director of the David C. Driskell Center.

 

• PRIZM Film

Thurs., Dec. 6 from 2 to 4 p.m.

Q&A 4 to 5 p.m.

Life is Fare is a Tigrinya/English feature film exploring three wildly different perspectives on the East African nation of Eritrea. The film’s premise follows Sephora, an idealistic young Eritrean American pitching a well meaning but ludicrous film idea to her traditional mother about a man, Haile, who fled their home country and ended up in San Francisco.

• PRIZM Perform

Fri., Dec. 7 from 5 to 8 p.m.

Challenging conventional modes of artmaking, performance art has long been a medium wherein artists can utilize a different format to explore, challenge and dissect a range of ideas and frameworks.

• PRIZM 6 

Sat., Dec. 8 at 9 p.m.

Special performance by a musical guest (to be announced), allowing guests to decompress after Miami Art Week.

 

Admission

⎯ VIP admission: $200 (includes fair catalog, tours, dinner event and access to all events)

⎯ General admission:  Day pass: $15; Multi-day: $50; Students: $5

 

Fair Hours

⎯  Tuesday, December 4, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

⎯ Wednesday, December 5, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

⎯ Thursday, December 6, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

⎯ Friday, December 7, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

⎯ Saturday, December 8, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

⎯ Sunday, December 9, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

 

Link to full article