enveloped in darkness

the quiet stillness of the vancouver art gallery only heightened the sternum punch i felt when i first laid my eyes on one of kerry james marshall's large scale paintings. even two months after my initial introduction, marshall's paintings resonate with me.

standing among marshall's twenty-some paintings, it hit me, when was the last time i saw african american culture portrayed in oil or acrylic? i tried to think. i'm vaguely aware of artists such as hale woodruff, jacob lawerence and the obvious jean-michel basquiat but as i stood in a four story art gallery, surrounded primarily by works of white artists depicting white life, i realized that the mainstream art world, the one in which i am most familiar, has undoubtedly omitted the african american narrative. and marshall's work had an alarming way of making this obvious.

marshall's paintings, in their confrontational realist style, address this invisibility of black culture in  art and the western world, in general. the paintings made me uncomfortable. they made me  aware of my privilege being, living in a world saturated in white.

i hope you'll read this interveiw with marsall in the washington post from last year and, if you live in vancouver, check this exhibit out.