#rozeal

[imthefailedartist]

Highlights of

From Her Perspective: Intersections of Gender & Race

Bearing, 2006,

Bradley McCullum & Jacqueline Terry

African/American, 1998

Kara Walker

Untitled (from the Kitchen Table Series), 1990

Carrie Mae Weems

Liberation of Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben, 1998

Renee Cox

Baby Back (American Family), 2001

Renee Cox

Rozeal

Painful,the appearance of a dime in the cling (after Yashitashi's painful, the appearance of a prostitute of the Kansei era), 2006

Mrs. O'Dell Broadway and the Breakfast Program, 2009

Michele Tejoula Turner

Histology of Different Classes of Uterine Tumors, 2006

Wangechi Mutu

Corridor Day, 2003

Lorna Simpson

[deiaiko]

#5 - Reconnect

Masterlist

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Let me know your thoughts in the reblogs <3

[nghi-ve-my-thuat]

Rubell Museum - DC - Jan 13 2024

A trip to the Rubell Museum was something to look forward to despite my new Doc Martens slicing up my ankles during my 10-minute walk from the Waterfront Metro station. Opened on Oct 29th, 2022, the DC location at 65 I St. SW brought Mera and Don Rubell's collection of post-1980 art from Miami to the DC's Southwest neighborhood. This would be my second time visiting with my first experience viewing the inaugural exhibition What's Going On?. The collection showcased many artists I was not familiar with. It was a treat discovering new and exciting art. For me, artists that I wanted to learn more about from my last visit were Chase Hall, Hernan Bas and Christina Quarles.

Christina Quarles

Detail: Fell to Earth (Felt to Pieces), 2018

Acrylic on Canvas

Taking advantage of the gorgeous and expansive space past the entrance, the museum mounted works by Alexandre Diop - a Franco-Senegalese artist who, according to the website, "uses discarded objects to create work that raises questions pertaining to sociopolitical, cultural and gender issues. Drawing inspiration from his European and African roots, he explores the legacies of colonialism and diaspora while tackling universal themes of ancestry, suffering, and historical violence". The open space with its large cathedral-esque windows floods the space with natural light, showcasing all the wonderful varied textures and highlighting all the materials that Diop uses in his work.

Once you exit this room, you will enter a three-level building that was once part of Randall Junior High School, a historically Black public school that ceased operations in 1978. The Rubells purchased this historic site from the Corcoran College of Art and Design in 2010 for $6.5 million. The building was the site for the inaugural What's Going On? when the museum opened in 2022.

Although quite disorienting to navigate at first, each level essentially follows a radial floor plan. There will be an exhibit in the middle of the level when you first come, and then out in all directions are hallways that will lead to individual rooms with their own exhibits relating to the overall current exhibition - Singular Views: 25 Artists.

One of the biggest flaws in the architecture of the building or more importantly, how the architecture is utilized, is the decision to install art in the narrow hallways. These hallways doubtfully will pass the modern fire and safety code. Large enough to fit one individual through, there would often be two-dimensional works hanging on both sides of the wall. The proximity between the visitors and the works would make any conservator nervous. There is a serious bottleneck where a visitor must wait for another to pass through before entering these spaces. Needless to say, when there is a person waiting, one cannot help but exit in a hurried manner. This takes away any chance for close looking or truly connecting and appreciating the work.

Overall, the exhibition was something you would come to expect of the Rubell Museum (so far that I have seen in DC): colorful, vibrant, electric and featuring young artists, some in their early or mid careers. The standouts this time for me were Amoako Boafo, Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe and Rozeal, whom I will be covering in separate posts so they each have their own spotlights.

[supersaiyansewin]

An Afro-Asiatic Allegory by Iona Rozeal Brown

[kakepop]

@bgcharaweek Day 4 - Free day

Sketch page collection

[queenapplebuuum]

30 Americans Exhibition at the Barnes Foundation 🤎

[quo-usque-tandem]

afro.died, T by Rozeal

[shalvis]

they’re happy together

[artbookdap]

Today, ‘30 Americans,’ the Rubell Family Collection's landmark show of works by African-American artists, opens at its 17th venue, The Barnes, in Philadelphia. We are proud to have distributed the exhibition catalog, now in its fourth, expanded edition, since its first printing in 2009, and we cannot recommend highly enough curator Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw's recent essay on “The 30 Americans Effect,” which makes a compelling case for how this one, visionary traveling exhibition has changed museums today. #rozeal #nickcaveartist #davidhammons #barkleyhendricks #mickalenethomas #hankwillisthomas #jeanmichelbasquiat #30americans @rubellcollection @barnesfoundation @artnews @professorshaw #30americanseffect #blackart #africanamericanart https://www.instagram.com/p/B4IErSuJ2e-/?igshid=1pl0loybm9eih

[snejkha]

Skern for @Rozealous // Thank you so much//

[themadscene]

Iona Rozeal Brown

[vanitylang]

Also, I've got this to share too. Quite the #towerofgodtuesday indeed. XP

[moodoofoo]

Iona Rozeal Brown King Kata #3: Peel Out (after Yoshitoshi’s “Incomparable Warriors: Woman Han Gaku”), 2009 archival inkjet print 24 x 30 inches edition of 50

[lpark346]

Rozeal (formerly known as Iona Rozeal Brown)

American, born 1966

a3 #16 w.o.i.m.s., 2004

Acrylic on paper

https://museum.cornell.edu/collections/modern-contemporary/21st-century-painting

[gerrybannan]

Powerful Chakaia Booker sculptures in the fabulous exhibition FIERCE WOMEN at the Moss Art Center at VT. Also featuring Marylin Minter, Jenny Holzer, and Rozeal, Guerrilla Girls! Get on up there and check it out! (at Moss Arts Center, Virginia Tech) https://www.instagram.com/p/B796RG8hs6S/?igshid=35luh9f8ysgv

[texturesmaterialculturelab-blog]

Fashion Fusion in the Era of Globalization

by texturesmaterialculturelab

It’s the spooky time of year again, when we see some of the most heinous, offensive displays of cultural appropriation by our colleagues, neighbors, and even some of our friends. Cultural appropriation -- the practice of adopting symbols, performances, and styles of other cultural groups, is inherently about power. When we see (mostly) white revelers dress in”native” costuming for Coachella, don sombreros and faux-staches for Cinco de Mayo, or darken their skin to play caricatures of countless black entertainers and athletes, our frustrations stem from witnessing dominant cultural groups selecting elements from those who have been marginalized or oppressed by that dominant group. 

We can identify many of these performances as what Nirmal Puwar calls, “the amnesia of celebration,” by which the white body escapes racialization when wearing cultural garb, and becomes a blank slate. This cultural “amnesia” involves willful disregard for the symbolic and physical violence that people of color experience while wearing the same garments. These adopted symbols or performances are historically (or perhaps contemporarily) maligned when worn or performed on the bodies of marginalized groups. Think about the meaning of the hijab, or even the turban, after 9/11, and reports of countless brown people being ejected from airplanes solely because of their appearance. In these cases, race operates as a style, performance, or aesthetic, and through appropriation, race and culture become de-historicized and depoliticized.

But, let’s not focus on the terrible and tacky, and instead gaze upon something more pleasing to our aesthetic sensibilities. A couple of months ago, the global pop culture site, Konbini, published a piece featuring gorgeous kimonos adorned with colorful Senegalese and Nigerian patterns, and the innanets went wild!! The collection, branded under the label Wafrica, is a collaborative project developed by Serge Mouangue, a Cameroonian-born (French-bred) industrial designer, and Kururi, a Japanese kimono designer. According to Mouangue, his inspiration for the collection came from the similarities he recognized between Japanese and Cameroonian (and more generally, “African”) culture, after he spent time in Japan. He chose to merge two iconic elements from Japanese and West African culture to produce a new item; a new, floating cultural aesthetic. He remarked, “It doesn’t belong only to Africa or Japan, but carves out its own new territory, a third aesthetic.” So, rather than simply mapping one cultural aesthetic onto another, he and Kururi attempt to produce a third space that allows us to appreciate the cross-cultural values embeded within each piece. 

After seeing the gorgeous kimonos for the first time, we couldn’t help but think about painter Iona Rozeal Brown’s fantastical art that blends Japanese and African American Culture, notably ukiyo-e prints and hip-hop. Inspired by her discovery of ganguro, while living in Japan, Borwn’s work uses humor and excess to expose  intersection and cross-cultural sharing of symbols and racial performance. Ultimately, Brown highlights symbolic cultural sharing between Asian and African American cultures.

Encountering both Mouangue and Brown’s art gives us a glimpse into the imaginative possibilities produced by two different black artists, from two different continents, as they encountered Japanese culture, history, and aesthetics. What both artists expose are questions about culture, heritage, nation, race, and performance. On the Wafrica website, Mouangue gestures toward the intervention his pieces invite as we consider the cultural implications of globalization:

“In response to the argument that globalization may rob us of our cultural identity, a conversation between two ancient, strong and sophisticated identities: Japan and Africa. The conversation is about the beauty of weaving strands of our stories together.

Wafrica is about hope and embracing the possibilities made available when the unique treasures brought by each of us are juxtaposed to forma . new and enlightened international consciousness”

It is within this cultural story that we experience the most ambivalence. Despite the fact that Mouangue does not distinguish between the African continent and her fifty-four countries, how do we know when cultural blending is done right? Mouangue appears to focus on the benefits of globalization, however the blending of Japanese and “African” culture seems to do exactly what he’s claiming not to do; erase the specificity of their histories. What role does intention play here? While the stunning Wafrica collection has received an overwhelmingly positive reception, we wonder if we might also take the time to interrogate the work, the history, the process, and Wafrica’s practice and motivation, while still reveling in each garment’s exquisite beauty.