Mixed Media
Sedrick Huckaby, A Love Supreme
Anita Holman Knox, Stitches In Time
Jack White, Ancestral Memory
curated by Phillip E. Collins
Exhibitions will be on view through February 27, 2010.
Mixed Media exhibits the works of Sedrick Huckaby, Anita Holman Knox, and Jack White. The title Mixed Media is a metaphor to present each artist’s work in a separate gallery and collectively view all three galleries as one exhibition. All three artists explore African and African American textiles independently as a means to express their search for aesthetics, identity, position and humane value of African American art in a global culture context. The exhibition reflects the sustainability and adaptation of African textiles in the “New World” and its impact on American culture. Beginning with its rhythmically arranged geometric shapes translated into colorful scraps of cloth stitched together to create quilts for cold winter nights, later expressed in jazz as improvisation, and currently being explored by artists, quilt making remains a vital and creative part of African American culture. Not only has it been a conservative means for providing economic family needs, it has provided an avenue for African Americans to advance their social status. Mixed Media examines and elevates the concept of quilting to an iconic level as works of fine art.
Large Gallery
Sedrick Huckaby
A Love Supreme
“When content and form combine completely, it allows the viewer to believe the painting is something other than what it actually is or mean something more than the sum of its media. This process of transformation is the magic of painting.”
– Sedrick Huckaby
Fort Worth artist Sedrick Huckaby exhibits his magnum opus, A Love Supreme, for the first time since he received a Guggenheim Fellowship Award to complete this 80 foot long painting that he began in 2003. His grandmother’s quilts are the subject of this installation of four large paintings which envelope the viewer. Each painting is 20 feet long and almost 8 feet tall. Each bears the title and palette of one of the four seasons: Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer. The paintings convey the seasons through the rhythmic patterns, colors, and textures of the quilts that are analogous to their musical namesake, John Coltrane’s jazz composition, A Love Supreme.
Huckaby’s inspiration comes directly from his family, his faith, and his African-American heritage. For example, not only are his paintings of quilts a reflection of African-American heritage in general, they are also ‘portraits’ of specific quilts that his paternal grandmother made for the family. Huckaby sees the quilts as the African-American women’s form of “jazz”, a different kind of improvisational “jam session” that happens when women gather to quilt. Also, the seasons are more than metaphors for the rhythm of life; they represent his deep convictions about love, marriage, family lineage, and God.
Sedrick Huckaby earned a BFA at Boston University in 1997 and an MFA from Yale University in 1999. He is the recipient of both a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship Award. His work can be found in the collections of African American Museum, Dallas, Texas; Kansas African American Museum, Wichita, Kansas; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts; Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York; and the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas. He is represented by Valley House Gallery, Dallas, Texas.
Square Gallery
Anita Holman Knox
Stitches in Time
“…I see myself as a facilitator for those who celebrate life and find joy in the beauty and strength of our cultural heritage and diversity.”
– Anita Holman Knox
Anita Holman Knox is among many non-traditional contemporary artists who have chosen quilt making and wearable art as a medium of creative expression. Knox’s belongs to a movement of African American quilters, a growing number of professional women, such as doctors, attorneys, engineers, and university professors who have formed national quilting networks. Their objective is to create heirloom quilts to pass on to future generations. Knox’s work is rich with bright colors and drawings. She tells stories about her personal heritage and documents African American historical events. Knox received a B.F.A. from Howard University, Washington, D.C. and A M.F.A. from Memphis College of Art, Memphis, Tenn. She has taught drawing and painting at Fort Worth ISD and as assistant professor of art at Talladega College, Knox is currently an instructor at Tarrant Count County College, Forth Worth, and Texas. She is a member of the Women of Color Quilter’s Network. Knox resides in Fort Worth, Texas.
New Works Space
Jack White
Ancestral Memory
“I suppose I’m interested at this point in an identity. So with some information on my heritage I try to create exciting works with a connection to things of a black motif. After several attempts in various directions, a link to an African past seemed to emerge.”
– Jack White
Jack White assemblage paintings reflect penetrating insights into African textiles. His paintings look as of they are directly influenced by Cubism. However, they refer to the original African sources which inspired Western European artists. Spiritually, White searches for an identity with Africa’s ancient culture. Color, wood, metal, varied found objects and linear configurations come together to form “totems” in sharp, tension-filled compositions.
White received his B.S. (Art/Education) from Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD and Graduate Study (Museum Studies/African American Fellow) from Syracuse University; Syracuse, N.Y. White resides in Austin, Texas.