Galleries

RUSH PHILANTHROPIC ARTS FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES “Fraught Imaginaries”

Visual Art Exhibit, on Display January 10^th – February 21^st 2016, at Corridor Gallery features Karmimadeebora McMillan and Alexandria Smith curated by Charlotte Mouquin.

Brooklyn, NY — Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation is pleased to present Fraught Imaginaries a pivotal two -woman art exhibition discussing being a contemporary African American Artist in America today – January 10^th through February 21^st 2016 at Corridor Gallery (334 Grand Ave, Brooklyn, NY). Karmimadeebora McMillan and Alexandria Smith both use bold senses of color and images from personal histories that compliment one another into a graceful dialog.

Karmimadeebora McMilan, a recent MFA graduate of SMFA Boston and part time professor, grew up in North Carolina. Her Southern childhood influences her current painting through brightly colored fragmented quilted landscapes combined with characters from the racist propaganda she has come to know. The large canvas Away We Go from 2013 exemplifies this with the introduction of Ms. Merri Mack. This character renamed by the artist from “Miss Mary Mack” is a recurring theme, and still used as a lawn decoration in rural southern regions. In more recent paintings McMilan is also incorporating cartoon cut outs from The Black Panther Coloring Book. The Black Panther Coloring Book, released in 1968 by the FBI, was sent to white families across America as propaganda to discredit the Black Panthers. Among the paintings are brightly painted vertical strips that are both on the wall and in the gallery space. These pieces compliment the paintings and bring the themes and subjects within the canvas off the wall and into our reality. This is Karmimadeebora McMilan’s first exhibition with Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation.

Alexandria Smith, a recent resident at Skowhegan and recipient of The Fountainhead Residency, holds an MFA from Parsons and an MA from NYU. Smith responds to racial and cultural differences throughout American history with her personal autobiography through her characterized personal narratives and shifting landscapes. In Fraught Imaginaries Smith has created her largest wall installation to date titled Don’t Let me be Lonely. The character depicted is stuck between reality and the sublime evoking the current state of society “in which love and hope are waging war against hate and injustice.” Smith, a past Rush Teaching Artist and Artist in Resident at Rush Arts Gallery, was the recent recipient of the Virginia A Myers Fellowship at the University of Iowa where she focused on printmaking. Also on view at Corridor Gallery are some of Smith’s first monoprints, which continue the exploration of her characters and their shifting realities in the oeuvre of her body of work.

Fraught Imaginaries reflects the tense and burdened reality in mind of being a contemporary working African American female Artist in today’s society. Looking at the realities of America’s complicated, racist, and male dominated history the truth can be a difficult thing to face. Meet the artists at the Opening Reception on Sunday January 10^th from 4-6pm at Corridor Gallery, 334 Grand Ave, Brooklyn, NY.