12 Black female artists have ‘their own way of seeing the world’ in new Gantt exhibit

A new exhibition at The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, “A Superlative Palette: Contemporary Black Women Artists,” features the work of 12 people. And while the formats vary, the common denominator centers on foregrounding the intersectionality of their identities as 21st century visual creators.

Japan-based curator Dexter Wimberly is a frequent Gantt Center collaborator, and this latest effort was assembled to showcase the work of some of today’s important creative names who use their art to engage with the world.

As part of the work that marks the Gantt Center’s 50th anniversary, one of the features of this exhibition is that these artists have never been shown together in North Carolina in one show.

As the show reminds visitors, Black female artists historically have been marginalized and underrepresented in the art world. This exhibit aims to help correct that history by highlighting their achievements.

Artists and inspirations

Upon walking into the gallery, Mickalene Thomas’ “Clarivel Face Forward Gazing” (2024) was the first work to catch this visitor’s eye.

The large scale canvas features a woman on an interior chaise lounge in repose and with glittering rhinestone accents that make the oil and acrylic pastiche glitter and glimmer. Thomas is known for her multimedia work featuring African-American women that makes use of texture and found materials.

She credits a range of influences and inspirations — from European traditionalists like Edouard Manet and Henri Matisse, as well as Charlotte native Romare Bearden and actress Pam Grier. Thomas also is the first artist to paint a portrait of former first lady Michelle Obama, and it just went on display in Washington, D.C.’s National Portrait Gallery.

Another piece in the exhibition, Lauren Halsey’s “We In Here” (2022), is a large, three-dimensional column that features photo collage, hand-etchings and coloring done with watercolor ink and colored pencil.

This work has red, green and black color alongside images depicting physical strength alongside community blight. That includes signs showing businesses from the neighborhood: nail shops, pawn shops, check cashing services, fast food.

Words etched on the edifice, like “Free tha hood” and “We want a full and complete freedom” reinforce the artist’s call for systemic liberation.

The thought that goes into the work

Amy Sherald, perhaps most widely known for being selected to paint first lady Michelle Obama’s official portrait, is part of the exhibition with her piece, “The Rabbit in the Hat” (2009).

One of the hallmarks of Sherald’s work is her use of traditional portraiture genres to feature Black figures through a style that has been described as simplified realism. Sherald’s work is in direct resistance to Black lives being visually documented as a monolith through the trope of struggle or brutality.

Instead, she often places her subjects in settings traditionally associated with leisure, such as shorelines, parlors and other neutral backdrops.

As for Nigerian-American Toyin Ojih Odutola, traditionally known for her detailed paper-based drawings, she has more recently been working with a vivid color palette.

Her piece, “By Her Design” (2017), is a realistic portrait done in charcoal, pastel and pencil. It features a woman wading in rippled water, perhaps in Alabama, where Odutola came of age after emigrating to the US as a child.

Two of Deborah Roberts’ colorful mixed media portraits, which often feature Black youths as subjects, are also included.

Roberts addresses the complexity of the thought behind her work.

“The boys and girls who populate my work, while subject to societal pressures and projected images, are still unfixed in their identity. Each child has character and agency to find their own way amidst the complicated narratives of American, African American and art history,” she said in her artist’s statement.

Another piece, Calida Rawles’ large scale canvas, “Requiem for my Navigator” (2021), shows a man submerged under water, leading the viewer to explore their associations with the meanings of water Biblical judgment to deliverance and more.

‘About the connection’

As a curator, Wimberly said he isn’t necessarily interested in trying to draw connections between different visual languages that the artists present.

Rather, he wants to emphasize that all these artists are a product of our times and are offering their own form of social commentary.

“Even though you have a generation of artists who are contemporaries, they all have their own way of seeing the world and reflecting that back out to the world through their art,” Wimberly told The Charlotte Observer. “This exhibition is less about the connection between the artwork made by these artists. It’s more about the connection that all these artists have to this time that we’re living in right now.”

Putting it together, piece by piece

While visitors to the exhibition may see a compact collection of artwork, the curation and acquisition of these pieces takes time.

Locating and securing access to “A Superlative Palette,” for instance, took the better part of a year, according to Wimberly. For this show, every work is loaned either from a private collection or gallery.

Deciding on what artists to include was also a challenge.

“It’s difficult because there’s so many fantastic artists that you could choose from, but there’s a finite amount of space,” Wimberly said with a laugh.

Building a relationship with art

Wimberly hopes that visitors to “A Superlative Palette” will develop or deepen an appreciation for the artists in the show. He also hopes that people will invest some time simply standing and looking at the works.

“Not every work of art is going to speak to you,” he said. “But there’s a very, very big difference between looking at something on a screen on your phone or on your computer than standing in front of an actual object and seeing things that just are invisible on a screen.

“There’s a human being behind that who created the piece, who put their time and energy into expressing themselves in that way and that kind of experience is not something you can duplicate digitally,” he said.

As a curator, Wimberly said that the thing that drives him the most in my thought process around organizing a show is thinking about the experience that someone will have when they visit the exhibition.

“I want that experience to be meaningful, and hopefully positive and transformative,” he said. “Sometimes you achieve all of those goals.”

Want to go?

What: “A Superlative Palette: Contemporary Black Women Artists”

When: Now through .July 28.

Where: The Gantt Center, 551 S. Tryon St., Charlotte

More Info: ganttcenter.org

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