We have carefully curated a selection of works by four leading Black Artists in Urban Contemporary Art, you need to know! Spotlighting Kayla Mahaffey, Jammie Holmes, Hebru Brantley & Marcus Brutus who’s each unique works excellently depicts the complexity of the black experience.
We are firm believers in actions speak louder than words and that’s why we proudly support living Black Artists. We advocate for more equal representation in art. We are excited to exhibit the works of Kayla Mahaffey, Jammie Holmes, Hebru Brantley & Marcus Brutus from February 1st -March 31st in our Downtown Hollywood Showroom. We look forward to continue to grow & diversify our collections together. #BlackArtMatters
Kayla Mahaffey
Mahaffey’s work gives voice to the unheard stories of contemporary youth and, as explained by the artist, “serves as a guide to bring hope back into our daily lives by cherishing each moment not in the mindset of an adult, but with the fresh eyes and imagination of a child.”
Living in our society can be tough and most of the time we have to make the best of it. A wild imagination can take you so far, but at the end of the day we need to realize and observe the world around us. And the world around us is where the artist finds inspiration to paint. Colorful paintings that contain hints of whimsy and realism that tell a story of inner thoughts and personal issues that sometimes go unheard.
Being born and raised on the South side of Chicago, IL, only ignited her love for all things art. Seeing the struggle and the support from the community made her work evolve to a concept that is personal to her. She continues to further her technique, and creativity in her field in order to paint a beautiful picture of a new world for those around her.
Jammie Holmes
Holmes is a self-taught painter from Thibodaux, Louisiana, whose work tells the story of contemporary life for many black families in the Deep South. Through portraiture and tableaux, Holmes depicts stories of the celebrations and struggles of everyday life, with particular attention paid to a profound sense of place. Growing up 20 minutes from the Mississippi River, Holmes was surrounded by the social and economic consequences of America’s dark past, situated within a deep pocket of the Sun Belt, where reminders of slavery exist alongside labor union conflicts that have fluctuated in intensity since the Thibodaux Massacre of 1887. His work is a counterpoint to the romantic mythology of Louisiana as a hub of charming hospitality, an idea that has perpetuated in order to hide the deep scars of poverty and racism that have structured life in the state for centuries.
Despite the circumstances of its setting, Holmes’ work is characterized by the moments he captures where family, ritual and tradition are celebrated. His presentation of simple moments of togetherness and joy within the black population that nurtures the culture of Louisiana has made him an advocate for this community. Holmes’ paintings fall somewhere between realistic depiction and raw abstraction, incorporating text, symbols and objects rendered in an uncut style that mirrors a short transition from memory to canvas. He often references photographs from home, but also draws heavily on his own recollection of moments and scenes and works quickly to translate his emotions to paint.
Hebru Brantley
Brantley creates narrative-driven work revolving around his conceptualized iconic characters which are utilized to address complex ideas around nostalgia, the mental psyche, power, and hope. The color palettes, pop-art motifs, and characters themselves create accessibility around Brantley’s layered and multifaceted beliefs. Majorly influenced by the South Side of Chicago’s AfriCobra movement in the 1960s and 70s, Brantley uses the lineage of mural and graffiti work as a frame to explore his inquiries. Brantley applies a plethora of mediums from oil, acrylic, watercolor and spray paint to non-traditional mediums such as coffee and tea. Brantley’s work challenges the traditional view of the hero or protagonist and his work insists on a contemporary and distinct narrative that shapes and impacts the viewer’s gaze.
His style derives from graffiti-worn buildings and sneaker-hung telephone poles honoring memories of local legends. Saturday morning cartoons and comic books celebrating the triumphs of mythological heroes inspired him to tell stories. Brushes and aerosol cans replace his original medium, words and incantation. The paintings are a peek into his mind represented by codified synapses and coagulated liquid pigments. Eyes wide open, Brantley watched the co-modification and debasement of ancient precepts as the commercialization of the sacred replaced magic and incantation. Brantley is a master visual technician with innumerable stories to tell.
Marcus Brutus
Brutus’s paintings explore, in the artist’s words, “ideas of power through portraiture.” The self-taught painter received this first solo show after the artist Jennifer Guidi discovered and shared his work on Instagram, where it caught the attention of Harper’s Books in New York. Brutus’s first solo exhibition there in September 2018 debuted his series of figurative paintings that deftly examined Black American identity and civil right struggles. Brutus, who studied at the St. John’s University in Queens and previously worked in Public Relations, deftly applies his innate ability of storytelling to art. Drawing inspiration from diverse source materials culled from the realms of fashion, film, music, photography, art, and politics, he fluidly interweaves subtle and overt references to the past and present, the real and imagined to creates vignettes that seem to collapse discrete eras and context. “What I’m trying to do is establish a legacy,” Brutus explained, “I want to show these very contemporary issues, but show them as having some long past.” There is a palpable emotional intensity to Brutus’s painting, reinforced by his saturated use of color and dynamically askew lines.
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